Cheryl Strayed Quote

So this is the Sierras, eh? he said, looking out over the dark lake. All that time growing up I never made it up here before. It’s the Range of Light, I said, passing the joint back to him. That’s what John Muir called it. I can see why. I’ve never seen light like I have out here. All the sunsets and sunrises against the mountains. You’re on a spirit walk, aren’t you? Paco said, staring into the fire. I don’t know, I said. Maybe you could call it that. That’s what it is, he said, looking at me intensely. He stood. I’ve got something I want to give you. He went to the back of the truck and returned with a T-shirt. He handed it to me and I held it up. On the front was a giant picture of Bob Marley, his dreadlocks surrounded by images of electric guitars and pre-Columbian effigies in profile. On the back was a picture of Haile Selassie, the man Rastafarians thought was God incarnate, rimmed by a red and green and gold swirl. That is a sacred shirt, Paco said as I studied it by the firelight. I want you to have it because I can see that you walk with the spirits of the animals, with the spirits of the earth and the sky. I nodded, silenced by emotion and the half-drunk