“Primitive” art can stir up something primal within us today, a feeling of kinship with the artist although we may be separated by centuries. Sharman Apt Russell, professor at Western New Mexico University and nature/science writer, writes of finding and holding a Mogollon pottery shard (which she replaces after examining) in the Gila National Forest: […]
The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks. –Tennessee Williams When it’s spring and there has been a little rain, the desert blooms, breaking up the landscape with grace notes. These photos were taken in the Sonoran desert close to the vernal equinox, which annually seems to kick start a season of renewal. Mexican […]
We get better at what we practice. I’m not a golfer, but I’m pretty sure you have to practice in order to improve your swing. You have to do so repeatedly in order to develop muscle memory. In the same way, I have to practice looking, seeing. I have to practice writing. I have to […]
The photo above certainly does not depict me–I won’t even try this rocky section which my friend Rosemary attacks with ease. Having grown up as I did with very little bicycling experience, I pretty much started from scratch a bit over a decade ago. As a kid I spent much more time riding a horse than […]
Beauty, pleasure, and the good things of life are intensified, and perhaps only exist, by reason of contrast. –Walter J. Phillips The Baja California Sur landscape is one of interesting contrasts. Here’s an example: Can you find the island in the above photo? Although you can’t see the water beyond the cactus forest, the mountains […]
Photo above: Bald cypress tree beside the river at the Fisher Place, taken at a time of extreme drought. I still feel the years of my growing-up in my bones. Somehow, forty-five years later, I still fish with my big brother Eric on the river at the Fisher Place and try to snag the old […]
On a still night in the darkness of a clean sky the breeze weaves a quiet tale. Looking on in lonely splendor the stars smile and nod their heads as it pleases them looking for a cloud as a pillow and drifting into sleep. It is a grand old song sung countless times through many […]
Nature gives us so much, including simple opportunities for exercising our observational skills. We don’t have to be John Muir to appreciate the sensual gifts of nature, nor do we have to travel far. Here are some easy ways we can practice wonder. Be aware: Notice weather patterns: wind direction, cloud types, humidity levels. Notice plant and leaf shapes. Notice whether the […]
Sometimes the realities of our days include the illness of dear ones, news of sobering setbacks, problems that seem to us unfixable—all of us know these. But we can use wonder as a prism to break the hard light of each day into what the poet E.E. Cummings called “secret glories.” Cummings said that an […]
Studies in Color and Composition
Radical Retirement
Sean Dietrich's column on life in the American South.
A Glimpse into My Life & Passions
Joann Pensabene
Where observation and imagination meet nature in poetry.
pursuing a life of purpose
Writing our way to awareness
Living life outside the lines
A Story Circle Network blog for and by women
A Diary of Love, Literature, and Growing Up in Wartime America
Practicing Wonder 