We watched a hummingbird buzz around, then land on her nest.
A nest so small there is zero chance we would have seen it otherwise.
A tiny cup of lichen and probably dog hair woven together by spider webs,
soft and expandable to accommodate growing chicks.
A miracle, plain and simple.
And that’s before they fly 4000 miles to their […]

There’s a moment in spring
where everything seems to pause, just briefly.

It’s as if the season takes one big inhale
and then spring thunders in
with its special shades of green
and bright colors dotting the dull brown landscape.

We two-leggeds feel this in our bones
breathing with spring
brimming with anticipation.
Ready to emerge from winter’s grip
we shed layers, and not just […]

Snow has given way to spring.
Only patches of ice remain
where sun rarely touches
or where snow was piled high.

Daylight lingers.
Mud reigns.

Ducks and birds return from their winter get aways
as early spring skies fill with their wings and their songs.

Spring is a boisterous jovial time, after the hush of winter.

It is not without care, though, as we […]

It’s happening.
The forest, still mostly in its winter hush,
but for the shifting songs of cardinals
and other year-round feathered residents
beginning to sing louder, with more gusto,
the forest is starting to wake up.
Sap is running and spring has begun to show herself.

And yesterday, as if spring equinox was precisely their cue.
the red-wing blackbirds returned.
It doesn’t take a […]

Do you feel the shift?

Love is in the air.
This winter Valentine day.

You can see it in the red patches of snow
where female bobcats coming into heat
have left their mark,
a card, of sorts, for the males to read.

You can hear it in the birdsong
as they start to shift from hushed winter calls
to soaring love songs;
or in […]

For the snow lovers among us
these past weeks have been abundant.
Even a little too abundant
as we look in vain for places to put
the next shovel’s worth of bounty.

It’s exciting and exhausting
exhilarating and relentless.
Wet heavy snow stuck to the trees
then froze in place,
weighing down every single branch,
bending them into trails
we had already diligently cleared
and checked off […]

Seeing Solstice

There is a pause now
this quiet Solstice time
before light slowly lengthens.

The temptation?
To count the days.
To hold our breath
until daylight stretches into evening
and early morning forces back the darkness.

What a relief it will be
these light-starved eyes
to see again
no longer fumbling in darkness.

Still,
somewhere deep inside
past resistance and reason
you know this darkness, too, is your home.

A place […]

For the peace and promise of a sunrise.
The quickening of breath that comes
when we take in the beauty of our surroundings.

For the mystery and humility
of daring to see how we are all connected.

For the opportunity, over and over again,
to choose joy.

For waking up every day to the unknown
and the courage to walk into that day.

For […]

Leaves Take Flight

It is the season for letting go.

A time when even trees move
bending and swaying in the strong gusts
adding their whispering song to the wind.

Leaves touched by autumn’s cool hand
let loose from sturdy branches.
Taking flight, of all things–
a wild dance in all directions.
They land finally, amidst their brightly colored companions
only to scramble on the […]

It doesn’t matter how many decades I’ve been doing it. Every single year, when I plant vegetable seeds the size of a pin…