THE WARBLER AND THE MADNESS: And so I returned from guiding another group into the wildwood. And it was fine and grand, filled with scarlet tanagers and towhees and wood ducks and 116 other species, including a ridiculously beautiful little yellow warbler caught by photography in mid-song. We lunched on overlooks high above the Mississippi Valley. We wandered among wild
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
I’M OLD FASHIONED. I live in a log cabin. I paddle a canoe and camp in the wilderness. I ride an old motorcycle. I read old books. I’ve written a bunch of books with just a yellow legal tablet and a pen. I was raised in an old fashioned way. Lying was a bad thing. A really bad thing. So
SOMETIMES you just feel like sharing. Especially around a campfire. (Even a virtual one.) Feelings, impressions, a good story. Especially on a long and arduous journey. And most especially when you find a really good place to stop, and rest, and share what needs sharing. So… I’m feeling that way now. Perhaps you are, too. And I know just the
WORDS FROM THE CAMPFIRE: On this site, we daily (almost) endeavor to strike a balance. A balance between what and what, exactly? Well, on the one hand a hard-edged, clear-eyed anger and outrage at what is being done in this country, in our name. At words and actions that tear at the very fabric of our democracy–our 250-year-old constitutional republic–that
HELPING TO HOLD EACH OTHER UP: Sometimes, much more often than I would like, some terrible new bit of news comes over the airwaves or though the internet. About the regime protecting pedophiles or attacking innocents or building concentration camps or intensifying efforts to corrupt and steal the next election (and therefore all ‘elections’ into the future) or something equally
TENDING THE FIRE/TRANSPARENCY: I guess I have now become what is known as a ‘social media influencer.’ Boy, that sounds terrible. It is not a title or job description I would ever have imagined, or sought. But with the passing of months and years, here on Facebook and on Substack, I keep writing; and along the way, accumulating friends, and
I AM A WRITER of children’s books and nature essays. A songwriter, mandolinist and guitarist. One may well wonder why I have spent so much time and energy these last years–and even more this winter–posting about politics. Well, I don’t. Others can write about political things with more knowledge and interest than I. But what I haven’t been able to
EACH YEAR we gather in the Autumn woods, awash with colors and the scents of fallen leaves, to explore the craft of writing. Of self-expression. We call it ‘WRITERS IN THE WOODS.’ Some have been returning for years, and some are new arrivals. It doesn’t matter–we quickly become a family, supporting each other, sharing and learning together. The art of
FRIENDS: They cannot take what they cannot reach. I wrote those words in a post the other day. I still like them. I think they resonate. I think they touch an important truth. So, I’ve been thinking about them. A lot. Authoritarians–totalitarians–like to make you think that they control everything. In total. In fact, that is the very definition of