One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the . . . marvelous structure of reality. — Albert Einstein A handsome dragonfly–a widow skimmer, I believe–is gracing my garden these days. It has been much too quick for me and my camera; dragonflies are such excellent fliers that aviation engineers research them hoping […]
I’ve been musing lately about the mechanisms of the food chain. In our household we’ve been viewing the televised seven-part series North America on the Discovery channel, and I often find myself rooting for the prey when predators are featured in hot pursuit. This documentary is beautifully done, and, I must say, it’s refreshing to notice […]
Prickly pear cactus blooms always remind me of my mother. They seem to flower here in the Texas hill country around Mother’s Day every year, and they’ve been coloring the landscape with their sunny faces this week: After I became an adult, when I would visit my mother–before she started the long Alzheimer’s decline toward […]
(such a sky and such a sun i never knew and neither did you and everybody never breathed quite so many kinds of yes) –E. E. Cummings The past week in the Texas hill country was one of noticing new life in progress: two pairs of scissortail flycatchers flying in front of me as […]
As we sat outside with friends last evening with spring surrounding us, the conversation turned to birds. Mary Ann recently saw and photographed a special “triple” here in the Texas hill country: a painted bunting, an indigo bunting, and a lazuli bunting. I would love to see all three of these gorgeous birds together. We […]
I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. –John Burroughs Since returning home to the Texas hill country a little more than a week ago, I have felt particularly welcomed by spring blooms and by the healing rain that first started on Easter Sunday and returned […]
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 […]
A few years ago, when we arrived in Baja for our winter stay, I was slowly recovering from a pinched nerve in my neck. After several weeks of physical therapy and medication, I was still hurting, and, in addition, I had the remnants of a nasty sinus and respiratory infection, often snorting and blowing and […]
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 […]
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
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 