Tufted Titmouse (with a snack) It was a revelation for me to discover that both my gardening and new-found birdwatching hobbies had affected a kind of internal transformation. It is now my belief that the wild creatures—you might call them the “least” among us—show us who we are. That, at the end of the day, [...]
Tag: nature
Butterfly Effect
Butterfly Effect, paper collage, 2021 This post is formatted to reflect an original journal entry. 5/22/21 I buried a dead butterfly yesterday. I’d picked her up along the side of the road when I was out walking the night before. She could no longer fly, and I knew death was probably imminent. So I scooped [...]
On Birdwatching
If you've been following this blog for awhile, you probably know how much I love nature. Hiking, camping, gardening, even raising butterflies. There aren't very many outdoor activities (or critters) I don't like. Although, I've never taken a particular interest in birds. Not until recently, that is. It seems over the past few months, I've [...]
So, you think you can fly.
This post is formatted to reflect an original journal entry. 3/16/21 Went for a walk last night and found a hawk feather. (A little gift from nature. If I’ve identified it correctly, from a Cooper's hawk.) I love walking. Of the many kinds of exercise I enjoy, walking is tied, perhaps most intimately, to my [...]
Beyond Suffering
I felt compelled to write this post because of a conversation I had yesterday with fellow blogger, Gabriela. In responding to issues I raised in a recent post on religion and personality, she asked me how I felt about the notion that “life is suffering,” especially as it relates to the central meaning I ascribe [...]
Forest Within
Big Dreams, paper collage, 2020 neither is real. the nectar or the god the eye that plunges us into the storm like a bunch of savage, lonely children the truth is some miracles are dangerous the totalitarian revolutions of winter whispers and watercolors quaint maiden fields like a prayer for unjustified time or a mending [...]
Raising Butterflies. Again.
Nearly three weeks ago, I mentioned that one of the dill plants in my garden had attracted some caterpillars. Or, rather, attracted a female butterfly who laid her eggs there. As of the date of that publication, I had been watching fourteen very cute and vibrantly colored eastern black swallowtail caterpillars grow and eat (and [...]
On the Art of Wildness
The more I contemplate issues of purpose and meaning—and have contemplated them historically, as finding meaning was the quest that brought this blog into being—the more I seem to move definitively toward purposelessness. That is, the more I begin to understand that it’s the need for such a quest that’s the problem. And that struggling [...]
Sensory Interlude
It’s not often that I get requests for specific kinds of content. To be sure, I try to be as keenly aware as possible which types of posts attract the most readers and which segments of my core readership gravitate to which categories of content. Even so, I am always looking for ways to freshen [...]
