Waking Expectant

In Annie Dillard’s Classic, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, she wrote, “I wake expectant, hoping to see a new thing. If I’m lucky I might be jogged awake by a strange bird call. I dress in a hurry, imagining the yard flapping with auks, or flamingos.  This morning it was a wood duck, down at the creek. It flew away.” 

Dillard seemed to expect to experience something different, new, amazing, astonishing every day, even if that thing was small. That sense of discovery, curiosity, learning, and imagination is what inspires Riki and Kelly.  And they are blessed to be living lives of encounters with experiences and adventures, whether big or small.

Kelly Miller was born in Glenwood Springs, CO, where he spent his growing-up years with his gentle mother and outdoorsman father. He spent as much time as possible with his dad and his three older brothers, exploring the beauty of the Western Slope.

Rikelle was born and raised in Fort Collins, CO. She and her father found their way over to Glenwood Springs when she was a sophomore in high school. She met Kelly for the first time in a choir class. They dated through high school, and parted reluctantly to attend college in two different states.

Decades later, decades full of growth and challenge, they reconnected at a time of extreme difficulty for them both. Though connected by pain, the joy of the friendship and the natural compatibility that had brought them together in high school led them to quickly realize that it was time for them to share their lives once again.

Since then, they have been exploring the Wild, laughing, and healing. They live in the mountains of New Mexico. Between them, there are five children, ages 24 to 16. Connecting with their children is the only thing they enjoy more than adventuring. Of course, the best situation is when they can adventure WITH them. When he is not out in nature, Kelly is a professor of biology at the University of New Mexico. Riki, after 19 years of educating her children at home, is now working on a double major (Elementary and Special Education) that she will finish in December of this year.