My aunt and I were not on good terms when she died. It has been one of the great regrets of my life. Her father had died just a few months prior, and in the last weeks of his life she and I had had a falling out over his care and other things....
If you’re here for it, it’s enough
This morning have you seen a sparkle of light through the shaken leaves of a cypress, after an unseen squirrel has hastened across the branch? Yesterday, did you examine the exact shape of an oak leaf, its veins branching like blood vessels, like roots, like lightning, a thousand fractal shades of red and brown...
Everything Is Broken
“Everything is broken, yet much remains.” ~ Stone Person There’s this atheist Australian comedian I really love named Tim Minchin. He’s funny and vulgar and smart, but he also annoys me. He has this energy that is common among atheists (not all atheists, to be clear) of disdain for anything that hasn’t been thoroughly...
Expand Your Definition of Love
I went to Dragon Hollow today. Climbed up the stream bed with two bags, filled them both with stones. Carried them down again and put them in my car. When I got home, I lined part of the garden path with them. Garden photos later. First I want you to know what happened in...
In Which I Have Done a Thing I Have Wanted to Do For More Than Ten Years
The boy and I (oldest, age 18), drove into Charlotte with my trailer and stack of cardboard today, and we met a very friendly man driving a very intimidatingly gigantic tractor, who dumped a literal ton of compost into the trailer and gave us good advice on getting it home safely. We got it...
The Things You Don’t See Until You Know They’re There
It’s amazing what you don’t see until you know it’s there. For instance: Plant consciousness. A few nights ago, I was in a conversation out in public, with people I know but who don’t know me well enough to have plumbed the depths of my crazy (and I say “crazy” ironically here, because I...
Getting Back to My Roots in the Garden
It doesn’t have to be complicated. “Put a seed in the ground and see what comes up. Now you’re a gardener.” I’m paraphrasing wildly but that, in a nutshell, is from my dear friend Peter Fossel, and he ought to know. He’s the author of Organic Farming: Everything You Need to Know from Rodale Press. He...
I Wish I Could Learn to Listen to the Trees and Other Comments that Punch Me in the Gut
Someone I follow on Facebook recently posted a link to an article about tree communication, and how humans can learn to understand it. I commented, “This is not news to any of the indigenous cultures who live closely with nature. In the words of the Seneca, the language is called Hail-lo-way-ain… and we all speak...
You Are Vastly Underestimating Your Cat
I’m not judging you. I’m just saying. You are vastly underestimating your cat. I know, because I used to underestimate mine, until my friends taught me better. Almost everyone in our society does. Cats understand English and mental images quite clearly, for the most part, and they know things that will be helpful to...
About That Time I Met God and What God Had to Say for Godself
Hey Fen, Does a water molecule have a soul? What about a glass of water? Does a river have one too? Are they the same soul or different souls? Sincerely, A Human Dear Human, Yes. Sincerely, Fen P.S. I suppose you were hoping for more than that? Very well then.Here is a story. Two...