The longer I live, the less certain I am about anything. I'm not overthrowing the known for the unknown or vice versa, much less seeking balance. Some days are just without bounds. I'm just trying to stay present to the chaos. It seems the only place of worth. Increasingly, the world is dark, where money... Continue Reading →
Reflections: The Unforgotten
Aging is freeing for a writer, a last gasp of so many why nots? I’ve mentioned wanting to write poetry but not having a poet’s heart, which I don’t, but why not a few lines of verse, from time to time? And because it is not real poetry but an exercise, I use a quotation,... Continue Reading →
The View From Afar
It’s a soggy, sunny Sunday morning in North Florida with 74% humidity, the warmth of an oven without the offer of fresh bread. The yellow-black of the Tiger Swallowtail and burnt orange of the Gulf Fritillary butterflies weave in and out of vine-laden live oak and longleaf pine. Within the green vine-blankets are oval glimpses... Continue Reading →
At the Edge of the Woods
I was not familiar with the term greenway until I left Wyoming for subtropical Florida. Ever green lands were where other people lived. I still marvel at the green that is the South. My county has a population very close to the entire state of the high plains desert that is Wyoming. The magnificence of... Continue Reading →
I Talk to Trees
Life or death. A hurricane brings both to the forefront. The decision to stay or to go is the storm within a storm. Regardless, there is no escaping the experience of a hurricane. Now or later, you won’t miss it. Everything and everyone is scrutinized. We find out who we are and who we are... Continue Reading →
The Daily Eclipse
You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life. Long have you timidly waded holding a plank by the shore, Now I will you to be a bold swimmer, Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself," Section 46 Walt Whitman comes to mind more these days than he did during... Continue Reading →
What is Not in Our Stars
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings. (Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene III, L. 140-141) I agree with Cassius that fault lies not in fate but within ourselves. What else is the human experience? We make choices that are later labeled as mistakes because they are just... Continue Reading →
The Last Firefly
There are so many bright, shining moments not celebrated in legend or in memoir. Maybe they are not even recorded as journal entries. In their uniqueness, they fall short of sharing. Often, I wonder if I let them go a little sooner than I should, like when fireflies first appear. There is the brilliance of... Continue Reading →
A Wendell Berry Kind of Day
It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work and that when we no longer know which way to go we have begun our real journey. Wendell Berry, Standing by Words When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at... Continue Reading →
In Science There is No Silence
It is an ego kind of day, if I am not careful. Oh, I know there is no satisfying the ego for when I follow its urging, our travels never end but we don’t get anywhere, either. Meditation has taught me to keep the ego’s chatter in the background rather than front and center. This... Continue Reading →