We put our snowshoes on and stepped down the wobbly tree-trunk steps of my brother Mike’s tattered, mouse-infested house, and trudged through the thick snow, past the wood piles and doorless outhouse (always a delight in mid-winter), and over the top of his abandoned vehicles – a few exposed windows peeking out from under the … Continue reading
We live on a planet that uses the concept of balance as an operating system, as can be seen by how our bodies function, how ecosystems are kept in balance through predation and competition, how even our government (interestingly enough), is set up as a balanced system, hoping to find the best solutions through compromise … Continue reading
(finally, some high-brow literature..) My spiritual advisor taught me how to communicate with trees, but my first attempt didn’t go over to well. That tree you sent me to told me to get lost. She gave me a look of disdain. What did you say to upset it? Nothing, I did just as you described. … Continue reading
Story excerpt I got better at seeing all of the commotion around me, the entire metropolis of activity. All that mattered was movement: a leaf bobbing from a drop of rain or a hanging spider; a mist or fog or an invisible plume of airplane pollutants dispersing through the canopy like a fine rain, filtering … Continue reading
The crashing Lake Michigan waves muffled the constant hum of traffic along Lake Shore Drive. I took small pleasures in tiny parks with their few trees and benches and waddling pigeons, but only the beach provided an intimate connection with nature. It was cloudy and cool with a brisk wind as I walked along the … Continue reading
No one thought about balance in a southern suburb of Detroit in the 1960s. I doubt they think of it now. The war was being protested; the Kennedys and civil rights leaders were being assassinated, some kind of riot filled the city’s streets. What did I care? The Tigers were trying to win the pennant. … Continue reading
I might be the last person who should write about the need for balance. As a biology major, establishing a balanced life should have been easy, Ecology 101 teaching me all I needed to know. Only I drank too much and ate poorly, as if the ecological lessons I’d learned in my classes – balance … Continue reading
