When all you can see is a world relentless in its harshness
may you be wrapped in the beauty of a gentle autumn day.

When it feels like we shall never find understanding
may you lay down upon this earth, on soft, solid ground
look up at a sky filled with wonder
feel the ground beneath you
and recall how wholly […]

It’s time.
Time to return to the peace of a true night sky,
where stars smile down with cold, yet welcoming, eyes.
Time to go where sounds matter, where distant sight informs.
Where my senses can safely and surely expand
beyond my carefully constructed civilian walls.

Too long among human dwellings,
I shrink from the constant barrage.
The endless noise that rattles forth
from […]

By all that you deem holy
find something blooming
on this early September day.

Hunt, if you have to, for blooms of purple
or the lavender of dawn.
Seek out bursts of sun gold
or soft yellow, glowing in daylight.

Whatever you find,
greet these fine beauties
with the respect and reverence they deserve.

Get down low,
head on the ground if necessary,
until you can see […]

Small wonders happen every day–
the kind we assume,
like waking from sleep
or the sun rising and setting,
and the kind that surprise us,
like the unexpected phone call
or the shock of color in the garden
on a summer morning.

Small enough to go unnoticed
bright enough to feel abundant.

I’m not so sure there are “big” wonders,
maybe just a […]

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 […]