Be joyful though you have considered all the facts. – Wendell Berry This past week was full of work at the root layer, away from the tactics of day to day tending. We took walks. We made big posters of our observations. We studied beaver dams. We planted a tree. We […]
Friends, if we find ourselves sitting at home in the pouring rain, tempted to scroll through social media instead of accepting a one in a million invitation that involves the tiniest inconvenience of a few miles’ drive in exchange for a heart-opening, attitude-adjusting, hope-generating concert featuring three of the most talented, generous artists alive, plus […]
It’s always wonderful to return home after some time away, and yet a teensy bit of me is always wondering what has gone astray in my absence. This time, all seemed well, until I came upon a weird folded-up leaf on one of my bushes. Usually this is not the best discovery, as it means […]
Lots of people pass in and out of our lives, but if we are very lucky a few good ones stick. My mentor, colleague, and friend Budd was one of these good ones, to my everlasting good fortune. When we first visited the High Point Furniture Market together, over thirty years ago, he generously showed […]
As I was strolling down the street this week, a flash of color caught my eye. Tucked into a cone of brown paper, a lovely little nosegay was abandoned by a lamppost. When I picked it up to see if there was a clue as to the owner, a little card proclaimed “finders keepers”! The […]
After a short stretch away, I was excited to return to harvest the last of this season’s blueberries, and the little peaches that have been developing on my brand-new trees. Alas, the neighborhood critters had been busy in my absence – the berries gobbled up by the turkeys and bear, and the peaches claimed by […]
During a happily unplugged stretch in the mountains this week, I ventured out for a small hike. Though the trail was steep, it was short, and the views from above promised to be terrific. The trouble was, the very first steps were across a quick moving creek – not a dangerous river, but for […]
We were all lined up to board a flight the other day when the attendant said those words that strike dread into the heart of every traveler, “folks, we have a small issue…” In the blink of an eye we went from an on time departure to a 3 hour delay. Groans and cuss words […]
One great thing about beekeeping is that it can offer a compressed view of life’s greatest realities. For example, right now it is prime brood-building season, with dozens of bees born every day in a healthy hive. The circle of life is spinning ‘round at dizzying speeds. The other day, I spotted several cells that […]
On my walk home the other night, a shadowy lump bolted across the sidewalk in front of me. I froze. The lump froze. If you’ve ever walked the city streets at night, you know what the lumps are. In decades of urban life, I have seen approximately ten thousand furry shadows, and every single one […]