AS WE APPROACH a New Year and look back at the old one, I find myself thinking of wishes and hopes. I find these thoughts are in accordance with recent news reports on millions Americans dealing with, and having trouble coping with, pandemic-induced stress. More, in a real sense, than we need to. Not because there is no threat. But
APPROXIMATELY 2021 YEARS AGO an infant was born (skeptics who doubt that he ever really existed advance a weak case, with more faith in skepticism itself than in evidence) likely in a cave-like space under a simple stone dwelling, to an unwed, teen-aged mother, delivered into poverty in a troubled corner of the world. About 33 years later he died,
ON THIS SOLSTICE, it is perhaps a good time to reflect upon the dearest wishes we have for one another, on our next journey around the sun. In the spring, a brand new DW book will be published in China–our next door neighbors around the world. The book, with exquisite illustrations by Wendy Popp, is a new manifestation of an
KATHY, my wife-by-marriage, had the maiden name Sokolowski when I tumbled for her in college. Prettiest name I ever heard. As you might guess, she is of Polish ancestry. And for decades, every Christmas at her family’s farm home we were treated to a variety of traditional Polish delicacies, much to her dad’s delight. It has been a while now
IT IS AMAZING, and disconcerting, how much stuff—using the term in the purest literary or esoteric form—a little Cabin-In-The-Woods can hold. A cabin that houses two medium-sized people and one small cat. And it is further disconcerting to learn how much of the stuff—according to the chatelaine of the cabin—is not in the right place, or the right arrangement, or
YESTERDAY AT THIS TIME we were anxious about the arrival of an extremely severe summer storm. In December! We feared for our old grove, here at the Church O’ The Pines. But the fiercest of the winds avoided us, and now Kathy’s festive red bows, put away from harm, once more festoon the welcoming pines along the lane. The chickadees—adapting
HERE AT THE CHURCH O’ THE PINES, as we wait the last few hours before historic hurricane force winds and even tornadoes (80mph predicted winds, possible tornadoes, here! in Minnesota!! in December!!!) arrive, we are comforted by the thought that climate change is not happening. It is, like so many other facts, a mere hoax. A charade, a canard, perpetrated
HERE AT THE Church O’ The Pines, snow has fallen. More than we were expecting. To paraphrase Bobby Zimmerman, you don’t have to be a weatherman to know that winter is coming. And after a droughty summer, with wetlands and water tables still depleted, we are in need of snow this winter. Old Man River was frozen here just a
KATHY AND I ARE ALWAYS proud of our two sons. And they do and are many things to make us proud. Today we are feeling extra proud of younger son, Bryan. As Executive Director of Osprey Wilds Environmental Learning Center, he has guided the non-profit Center for most of the past decade. None of the years have been more challenging
NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER, with ever-shorter days and longer nights, and with more cloudy skies than any other months of the year, are our gloomiest Minnesota months. We human beings compensate for this deficit by creating light—inviting light into our homes and yards and gathering spaces, surrounding the longest night of the year with light, and in the process reminding ourselves