We strive for polish--then life creeps in, smudges the words. Truthifies 'em. I write from the heat of an urban midsummer, dry in the fount and muggy in the eyes, sapped and taxed by the living so far away from the places, people, mountains, deserts, and waters who sustain me. There was a place, a …
Prayer for Wild Places
2016 Blog July 2 “The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, “What good is it?” If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we …
Phrag Is Mightier
Ahhh, Phragmites australis. The common reed. Frequent denizen of roadsides and disturbed wetlands, with its lofty, green-then-golden stalks and romantic, cottony seedheads. To the naturalist's eye and the ecologist's ledger, it is an exotic flora, an unwelcome expendable to be eradicated in favor of [arguably] more native, nutrient-rich vegetation. But like so many weeds, in recent times this reed …
If Given a Lifetime…
“If you want to have a life that is worth living, a life that expresses your deepest feelings and emotions and cares and dreams, you have to fight for it.” Alice Walker A year ago one of my editors assigned me a story for their 2016 fall issue. It was to write a profile on …
Cutting through Time
“There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.” …
Writing the Wild 