Day 7, A Bouquet for You. “I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.” John Burroughs. I miss my friends. I miss our … Continue reading A Seven Day Bouquet: Day 7
Day 6, Flowers in pink, purple, and wine. “People who discourse pleasantly and accurately about the birds and flowers and external nature generally are not invariably good observers. In their walks do they see anything they did not come out to see? Is there any spontaneous or unpremeditated seeing? Do they make discoveries? Any bird … Continue reading A Seven Day Bouquet: Day 6
Day 5, Antelope Horns “I go to books and to nature as the bee goes to a flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey.” John Burroughs, The Summit of the Years. Observing nature is not only about what we see, but about what is awaken in us by what we … Continue reading A Seven Day Bouquet: Day 5
Day 4 of a Seven Day Bouquet, White flowers. “In the field of natural history, things escape us because the actors are small, and the stage is very large and more or less veiled and obstructed. The movement is quick across a background that tends to conceal rather than expose it. In the printed page … Continue reading A Seven Day Bouquet: Day 4
The doors are propped wide open. Outside, spring raced with the posture and speed of a roadrunner. This year, the redbuds flowered in storms of intense pink petals, rivaling my childhood memories of strolling under cherry blossoms at their peak. Windflowers on the hilltops (Anemone, berlandieri) and the endemic variety deep in the gorge (Anemone, … Continue reading Inside… For Just A While
She folds towels like the mom I watched as a child — aligning corners, sweeping her fingers across the terry, smoothing before flipping for a final fold, her accomplishment culminating in a smile of satisfaction. Before dementia, her folds had purpose, a mother caring for her family. Now she folds while not knowing why. A … Continue reading A Practice Run to the Finish Line
MERRY CHRISTMAS! MERRY CHRISTMAS! MERRY CHRISTMAS! MAY YOUR HOLIDAY BE FILLED WITH HAPPINESS. AND MAY YOUR NEW YEAR BE AMAZING. THANK YOU FOR SHARING IN MY LIFE. KAREN
My friend’s phone rang. When she answered, another friend asked, “Is Karen just devastated?” The bark looked the same. Skin of decades. Protecting. Rough and furrowed. Covering — like lined up and laid out potato chips, the wavy edges lifted as if exfoliating, peeling open trails that if followed could share stories from every season. … Continue reading A Tree is Nice
What a pallet upon which to place tiny treasures. The bursting of spring across the landscape is a painterly expression attributed to one artist. The view changes at each moment in millions of moves — the budding leaves and flowers, the emerging colors, and the sprouting blades and … Continue reading Spring, See it with the Heart
I stood at the edge of the gorge and glimpsed spring. The grass was dead and matted but through the brown blades popped purple and white flowers — anemones. Single flowers atop a slender stem, Anemone, berlandieri, are among the early spring bloomers in the Hill Country. They are lovely, ranging in color from white … Continue reading Go Shake in the Sun… with Exhilaration