Journal Entry #2

Saturday, Jan 31, 2026

This journal entry will be a reflection of my reading of our first two chapters of Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire, “The First Morning” and “A Serpent’s Paradise”. To me, they were two completely different chapters that evoked different reactions. “The First Morning” made me think and reflect about myself more, while “A Serpent’s Paradise” made me sort of chuckle and felt more like a tale, and less like a non-fiction writing. 

On the first page of “The First Morning”, Abbey talks about the idea of a “one true home’. This made me reflect a lot, because my mind went to multiple places that feel like a true home to me. I thought about sitting out on the dock at my grandmother’s lake house, I thought about walking through the pine trees in the Bitterroot Forest, and I thought about listening to the waves while sitting on a beach in southern California. Maybe this means that I have not found my actual true home, but I feel lucky that I love so many places my heart can’t just settle on one. The end of the chapter made me reflect on the meaning of sunrises. I have always loved watching a sunset, however these days I am up for most sunrises (pictured is one of my favorite sunrises on campus last semester). Watching a new day start is a beautiful feeling. Getting to witness the transition from a sliver of light to a bright sky is special. One of my favorite places to watch this transition is in the hospital on my Friday morning clinicals. We go in at 6 am, so the sky is still completely dark, but as we start going into patient’s rooms between 7 and 8, the light is spreading, and being on a higher floor means you can see the whole Fort Worth skyline. It reminds me that I worked so hard to be in this city and to make it to the clinical rotation part of my major. I savor those moments of both pride and gratitude. 

“A Serpent’s Paradise” was a fun read. This was an experience I hope to never have myself, but it was quite entertaining to hear about. In this chapter, Abbey felt more like a character in a novel than an author writing a biography. The biggest note I had on this chapter was how well it connected to our first readings and presentation where we discussed how all things are kindred. Abbey says that exact same thing in the last sentence of this chapter, and I believe that he shows this all throughout the chapter. He had the opportunity to hurt the rattlesnake, however he never does.