Blurred Edges
Photo credit: Linda Garrett My husband and I hopped out of the car, excited to explore a stand of aspens, trees that outdoorsy friends had called magical. Because one root…
I Get My Life Lessons From Sports Movies
Great sports movies deliver a happy ending and an uplifting moral. Here's the formula:1. MARCH TO VICTORYA box turtle crosses my path as I finish the walking loop at the…
Tim Plants a Garden
Tim, my neighbor across the street, nudges a vine with his toe. He shrugs. “I don’t know what this is.” He’s tall, floppy, and smiley—Dorothy’s Scarecrow. There’s a kneehole in…
Nature and Me
The leaves on my houseplant were yellow and limp, except for the ones that were brown and dead. When I leaned over to give the poor thing a final sip…
Cliff Hanger
Toward the end of our urban nature walk, our hiking club (well, we silver-haired ladies were more of a moseying club than a hiking club) stopped along the trail to…
Ground Yourself
The energy healer said my head was leaking. Too much energy escaping out of my skull into the heavens, too little being absorbed from the earth into my feet. My…
Paper or Plastic? or dazed and confused in the soaps and lotions aisle
A rabbit is haunting me. I’m standing in the soaps and lotions aisle of a natural foods grocery store, staring glassy-eyed at shelves of body wash. The bottles blur into…
Bad Weather
My body’s having an unhealthy relationship with the weather. Unhealthy and predictable. I’ve been walking this nature trail for less than half an hour, and already the heat is making…
Bovine Cooties
On the front porch of a cabin, I chatted with my roommate for the week, Marina—behind us the sounds of our housemates getting settled. Marina said, “Beautiful spot for a…