Come to the woods, for here is rest. – John Muir It’s a funny paradox that working on long-term thinking can be a frenzied, over-scheduled thing. Racing from a plane to rental car to highway in California recently, I was determined to get to Muir Woods before they closed. That is an […]
When a mother redwood tree falls, from her roots a ring of saplings springs up, called a fairy ring. And when that ring grows up, it is called a cathedral. I was able to gather with dear family and friends recently, and had a vivid image of our roots, all intertwined, holding each other up. […]
Zoom out, zoom in. When I was studying biomimicry and natural systems, we’d do a neat and simple exercise for observation: zoom out, and zoom in. Take a moment and scan a whole forest, and from a plain swath of green some amazing patterns start to emerge. You might see a clump of trees near […]
Friendship is a sheltering tree. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge Here’s the wonderful, hopeful, loopy thing about gratitude: once you’ve experienced friendship, you want to be a friend. Once you’ve been cared for, you want to care. Once you’ve been sheltered, you want to shelter. Dear Honeybees, […]
“I Coulda Been a Contender!” * Absence and Loss Winter in New England has a stark beauty, and sometimes it also has a relentless gray bleakness, which brings a certain kind of reflection. Lately I’ve been considering the sharp pain of loss and the role that rituals and community can provide. We’ve spent centuries developing […]
Redwoods, part 1: Fairy Rings and Cathedrals As the nights grow longer and the year draws to a close, it’s natural to think “legacy thoughts”. What do we have to show for the year? What do we hope to seed for the future? Dear friend and fellow biomimic Victoria Keziah recently reminded me of the inspiration […]