Nature grounds me, teaches me acceptance, reminds me how temporary my problems are, and helps me understand both the power and the insignificance of this moment in time. A few more things I’ve learned…
Category: Nature and the human spirit
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Nature and Connection
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Long Hot Summer
From quarantine to the brutal murders of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd recorded and witnessed by all of us, an outbreak of rage and protests, and the relentless climbing numbers of Covid-19 deaths, it was difficult not to be entirely consumed by bad news as spring slipped into the stifling heat of summer. Spring passedContinue reading
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Listen to Nature: What’s Coming and What We Can Do About It
At Little Piney, I hear the wind coming before I feel it on my face. Of course, if I choose not to listen, the wind comes anyway—I just get surprised. It’s the same way with rain. The damp air, the slight drop in temperature, the changing light all signal coming rain. If I ignore theContinue reading
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Dragonfly Pond Renewed
Hurricane Harvey Hurricane Harvey dumped 27 trillion gallons of water on Texas and Louisiana damaging or destroying at least 185,149 homes and taking at least 50 lives. Just minutes away from Little Piney dozens of homes flooded in Smithville. Whole neighborhoods were devastated thirty miles east in La Grange. In spite of 18 inchesContinue reading
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So Much Has Happened: Time to Reconnect with Nature
A month has passed since I last sat down to write about life at Little Piney. So much has happened this spring and summer that I haven’t had time to absorb the changes. My youngest daughter and her fiancé, David, were married in May after months of planning and preparation. She was a beautiful bride,Continue reading
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Special Moments in Nature–A Lucky Witness
Special Moments in Nature I pull out onto the highway from a dirt road. In front of me, a single black crow feather spirals slowly down from the sky. The suspended feather spins like a tiny dirt devil as I leave it behind. I step outside to watch for a late delivery truck.Continue reading
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March Promises and the Nature Cure for Primary Madness
March Promises Little Piney in March is a green and happy place. The landscape is tame and parklike after a late winter mowing, and full of promises of things to come–the first wildflowers, the first butterflies, mounds of dewberry blossoms, and tiny eggs that will hatch by Easter. Nature is a welcome antidote to the uglyContinue reading
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Thoughts About Loving a Place
I wrote this last week after a visit to my childhood home. These are my thoughts about “loving a place.” Loving a Place “A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his ownContinue reading
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My Sweet Aunts
My Aunt Thelma died this week. She was a feisty woman, outspoken and strong-willed. I say this with much love because that was not always an easy way to be as a woman in East Texas or in our family. I know because I’m like her in those ways! She was a career woman, aContinue reading