In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. –Albert Camus I don’t always find Camus’ summer within me, but here in Baja California Sur, it’s easy to imagine that mid-February is not the depth of winter. The following photos (taken in the past few days) are meant to be a […]
Desert plants here in Baja California Sur often intertwine and lean on one another like the cardon cactus and elephant tree (torote) pictured above. A local plant expert described this to some friends, my husband, and me as being simbiotico; that is, a symbiotic relationship in which different organisms cooperate. Sometimes, he explained, well-meaning folks […]
The bees on this Sour Pitaya bloom evidently find the nectar sweet. I found the flower to be one of the day’s “secret glories” (the poet E. E. Cummings’ term) as we biked on the Quail Trail. The Sour Pitaya or Pitaya Agria cactus is a cousin to the organ pipe, which also grows in […]
I’m a believer in the importance of counting our many blessings, and I try to count mine, in solitude. I also try to notice things each day which are ordinary little miracles: perhaps the creaminess of a perfect avocado or the impish sight of a tiny Mexican folk art turtle wagging its springy head in my […]
I think these cactus blooms look like fancy bows for holiday gifts. Photo taken Dec. 26th in Baja California Sur, Mexico.
We are who we are because of what we have done, where we have been, where we reside. We are different after experiencing new places, performing new tasks. I may never again go to Taxco, a colonial “silver city” of Mexico with cobblestone streets, but I am not the same person as I was before […]
Karla K. Morton: New and Selected Poems (2010), TCU Texas Poets Laureate Series The Wonder Is: New and Selected Poems 1974-2004 by Jan Epton Seale Poems require a particular kind of attention, and I can absorb the dense phrasings of poetry only in small doses. In 2011, I met both the 2010 and the 2012 […]
“I had her 52 years and 11 days.” In 1995, Nick Nickerson was a widower moving away from our town to marry a long-time friend. A slender, youthful looking man in his late seventies, Nick greeted me warmly, and spoke with a lively light in both his voice and his eyes. He was selling some […]
Nature’s color is wondrous; this photo has not been enhanced in any way.
An October day a few years ago: On this crisp bluest-sky morning, I am doing something I love, horseback riding with friends, but I’m not really focusing on what I am doing. Instead I am worrying about an appointment I have this afternoon, fretting about the need for this MRI I will undergo and mentally listing […]
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 