Transitionary Time

Here in the magnificent Pacific Northwest, the last few days have been a falling back and forth between seasons, a wild gyration between the tomb of winter and the fresh life of spring.    Nature reminds us, as she does every year, that the interplay between death and life is vital, regular, and right.   This …

Henry David Thoreau

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Diane Ackerman – A Natural History of the Senses

Reflecting on leaves falling, Diane Ackerman writes: Though leaves lose their green life, they bloom with urgent colors, as the woods grow mummified day by day, and Nature becomes more carnal, mute, and radiant. We call the season “fall,” from the Old English feallan, to fall, which leads back through time to the Indo-European phol, which also …

Tomatoes and the Call to Create

The tomatoes are now staked.  A few fashioned wooden dowels and some thin rope, and now the tomatoes can produce their fruit without either breaking their arms or rotting the fruit.  That's an interesting phenomenon.  We advanced creatures have fashioned, bred, and manipulated a plant so much that it can't actually live without us.  I choose …

Mountain Laurel and Mindfulness

Mt. Pisgah is one of the highest peaks around Asheville.  Yesterday, I spent the day wandering in that high country.  The Rhododendrons and Mountain Laurel were breaking out in splendid color.  The Laurels have always been one of my favorites.  I'm not sure why.  Perhaps it's the simplistic beauty.  Or perhaps it reminds me of …