I celebrated my birthday in January with a trip to Yosemite. The beauty was breathtaking: it had just snowed, and the trees were dusted fairytale-style in crystalline, glittering powder. Only a bobcat’s tracks were in the otherwise untouched snow before me. Wisps of mist, backlit by the morning sun, suffused the air with a sublime golden light. There was silence, stillness and staggering beauty.
On the return home I drove over Mount Tamalpais, coming out…