SO THERE’S THIS THING trees do. They reach for the light. Habitually. Always. Relentlessly and inevitably. This imperative may also be called aspiration. As in, trees aspire toward something. Toward the sun, of course. They never reach it, the trees, not all the way to the glowing sun. But they reach towards it. They aspire. And in doing so they
ON THIS BLUE-SKY, warm-wind Earth day, I wish you beauty. I wish you the secret space between two pines, there to wander through and discover a new world. Perhaps to discover the very first bloodroot blossom of spring, or the very last scarlet cup of late winter. The shiny rabbit-ear leaves of the early wild leeks, or the tender, spotted
AT THE OLD CABIN in the Church O The Pines by the Mississippi, an April breeze tosses the pine tops. But not enough to deter an eager paddler from slipping the Bluebird II into the water, for the first Spring outing. It was a long, hard winter in Minnesota. And it is always a thrill to feel the first pull
TODAY IS A VERY DARK DAY for those who love the North Woods, the Canoe Country, protected wild places, and particularly the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The Republican Party has, as is their custom of late, engaged in a great betrayal. A betrayal of all those people mentioned, of the state of Minnesota, and of the United States of
HERE AT THE CHURCH O’ THE PINES, it is a mild morning with a breeze out of the south. Such breezes are helpful this time of year in bringing some of our wandering members, whose wandering may have carried them very far to the south, back home and into the fold. It’s a wonderful time, and the church choir seems
YESTERDAY WAS A BIG DAY for our country, in our return to the moon and deep space, and for our world–in a moment of shared accomplishment and inspiration. It was also a big day for me, in terms of my own little life and my family history. For I feel that I have a connection to it all–albeit in the
ONE OF THE GREAT advantages of living in the forest is that we are surrounded by real things. Nothing phony, no lies, no ‘misinformation.’ This seems helpful in keeping one’s bearings, in maintaining a stranglehold on truth, and in nurturing a sense of perspective. Among the ‘real things’ that help in this endeavor are the real creatures that live here,
WE KNEW about the old (1932) cabin in the woods for 17 years. To ever own it and live there seemed about as likely as a trip to the far side of the moon. It was empty most of the time. I used to come out to ‘explore,’ to study birds and trees and plants. Then, somehow, the impossible happened,
IT IS APRIL at the cabin-in-the-woods. ‘Good Friday.’ But it looks a bit more like January. Still, all is beautiful. The soundscape is alive with the yodeling of loons from the river (no, they don’t stay through the summer, so it is a joy to hear them!) Tundra swans’ high voices echo through the sky as they fly overhead, arrowing
GOOD SUNDAY MORNING FROM THE CHURCH O’ THE PINES! You know, here in our humble green chapel there are many things we don’t have. That other fine churches do have. Sometimes we are able to replace these missing ingredients with something almost as good. Or, just as good. Or, even better! For instance, we don’t have stained glass windows. But