Great art and music resonate differently with each person. A certain sound or visual world can touch your very being, rich with meaning and emotion, melding with your personality, gender identity, ethnicity, heritage, memories, relationships, even shared life experiences with the artist or composer. Frida Kahlo and her self-portraits resonate with me. I can identify […]

Millions of children for well more than a century know the opening line of this magical story: “Once upon a time there were four little rabbits, and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter.” The author, Beatrix Potter, was a gifted, original artist. Her books interwove the wild and human world in a unique […]

Winter is often described as somber, dull, dreary, endless, best to avoid by staying inside and warm. The brief days and persistent nights can make us feel depressed, especially during this year of a terrible global pandemic. Maybe I’m a bit daft to love this season, but I find that winter’s magic and majesty lays […]

Creating a garden is a form of love, love for beauty and the gifts of the natural world. Gardening and growing your own food are activities that make us part of the sacred space of plants. Only outdoors, do I find revitalization and serenity, despite the tempest that rages around us. My garden has distinct […]

In an unexpected summer storm, I dash underneath an old valley oak and look up at its thick, furrowed trunk pushing upwards to the sky, the hail bouncing off its spatulate leaves. Trees are so familiar to us, but too often we view them as simply objects, background, or products, incapable of awareness, memory, feeling, […]

I came across cold winter’s delight A frozen droplet clinging to a twig A glowing promise of spring to come.

I haven’t posted for a while, as I’ve been recovering from shoulder surgery and pondering last week’s events, the images of a violent mob storming the citadel of our democracy, emboldened and incited by a president who broke his oath to protect it. I wrote this four years ago, still so haunting today: “With an […]

Starlings are often dismissed as an annoying, muddy brown bird, barely a notch above vermin. In the right light or with binoculars, I can discern their true, radiant colors — golds, purples, sea-greens, with touches of iridescent blue. In winter, these canny birds are thrilling to watch in synchronized flight above the stubbled farm fields. […]

A pale light streams into my bedroom. I’ve been tossing and turning for hours. I sit up to witness the weeping willow glowing in the ashen light beyond the glass doors. The moon hovers above the fence line, drawing me in, as a few clouds skuttle across. I fumble for my notebook on the nightstand […]