“Do you know that even when you look at a tree and say, ‘That is an oak tree’, or ‘that is a banyan tree’, the naming of the tree, which is botanical knowledge, has so conditioned your mind that the word comes between you and actually seeing the tree? To come in contact with the…
I’ve surrounded myself with friends who treat me kindly for forty-eight weeks of the year and then abuse me for four. They were here first, they tell me amidst their relentless attack. Who are you but our guest? I nod in reluctant acceptance of my fate. There are two times of year that are especially…
I’ve been wondering about the age of a large white oak tree guarding the edge of the forest for years. Not enough to actually do something about it, mind you, but wondering nonetheless. Then a hike with old growth trees last Sunday triggered a burning curiosity in me about the age of the trees we…
Removing a tree from the yard is always a painful decision. I’ve cut down a few trees over the years, and a part of me is cut out with every one of them. But sometimes they have to go. And I had a clump of them that were ready to go wedged in a tight…
“It’s not enough to reach the treasure, one must bring it back.” – Roger Lipsey I’m a collector of words and music. I find them in the wild and then bring them back in quotes and playlists. Perhaps that’s enough for the blog or drinks with friends, but I have all the other treasure that…
I took a walk on a local rail trail during a lunch break. The trail brought solitude occasionally interrupted by fellow walkers, joggers and cyclists. But not really solitude. There were glimpses of frogs warily looking back at me, chirps of chipmunks announcing “here’s another one.” as I walked by, and a distant hum of traffic…
Returning to the poem The Ship and Her Makers this morning as I consider the smoke alarm in my hotel room that chirped all night. Such is the glamorous life of travel. Writing instead of sleeping in is a habit I’ve developed, and there’s no sleeping in with a chirpy roommate. Consider: THE TREES We…
Northeastern Forests I recently finished reading The Hidden Life of Trees, a profoundly interesting book that taught me something new about the forests and the tress around me than I’d ever thought possible. The relationship of trees to the fungal network they’re connected to, the way the support each other with sugar through that network. …
Filling the Void Looking out into the woods behind my house you might see a thick stand of trees, deep green leaves, and dappled sunlight. I see the void. That dappled sunlight shines through a clearing made when a massive oak tree snapped in two during a storm earlier this year. The morning after it…