WONDERFUL NEWS! On September 8, I posted the story of finding a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk stunned and injured on a sidewalk outside the Stay Fit Gym here in Sartell. Standing guard and asking folks to give the bird a wide berth, I called my friend Elaine Thrune, a wildlife rehabilitator. Elaine arrived quickly and with a bit of subterfuge and
LITTLE STREAM, I can still hear you calling, though my footsteps may take me far away; through the seasons you’re rising and falling; young and old each new day, you move along but you stay, and I thank you for passing my way.
HERE AT The Church O The Pines, we make no differentiation between nature and the realm of the sacred. We believe that heaven ‘is as much under our feet as over our heads.’ We agree with the Zen poet who said, “Green trees, fragrant grasses… a place not sacred? Where?” We know that human beings are natural creatures, as much
THIS MORNING’S Church o’ the Pines post comes from Osprey Wilds Environmental Learning Center, where our ‘Writers in the Woods’ group has had a GRAND time this weekend. Sixteen souls sharing thoughts, dreams, words, feelings, fears, and hopes. Sharing their hearts with one another in the most open, caring, and generous of ways. All the while enfolded by the beauty
THESE ARE interesting times. When we have over 40% of the country happily abandoning every value and virtue they were raised in and once believed in, instead following a Pied Piper of mayhem who says, “It’s great! You can say anything and do ANYTHING and nothing happens. Don’t be suckers! Follow me!!” When we have an entire political party of
TO CELEBRATE the equinox and the arrival of fall, Kathy and I took a little day trip to view the colors and to visit the North Shore. It was a misty, foggy, windy, rainy day but the Big Lake—as always—was spectacular. The best colors? Well, right here around home. For another post…
IN SEPTEMBER, when the speedsters and noise-makers have mostly gone, the lake and the island belong once more to the silence. To the timeless and the sense of wonder. In that silence, from the old deck on the rocks, one can hear the chuckling of wavelets on the shore, the last wails of the remaining loons, and almost, perhaps, the
AS OUR LAST Road Scholar trip of the season comes to a close, we are left with indelible images and memories. Sunsets and moonrises, loon calls and paddling outings among quiet islands, eagles and rocky escarpments, a wilderness cabin, a winding trail to a high overlook and the drifting tones of a Native cedar flute. And most of all the
YESTERDAY WAS a marvelous day for Doug’s Road Scholars. After Tuesday’s visit to Sig Olson’s iconic Listening Point with Listening Point Foundation president Patsy Mogush, my great friend, we arose early and hiked in to scenic Kawishiwi Falls, along a trail populated with glorious trees, unique specimens growing over boulders and old white pine stumps, surrounded by blue bead lily,
AS WE FINISHED OUR Road Scholar trip into Voyageurs National Park, we looked down the lake, down the historic narrows into the past, and there glimpsed a brigade of voyageurs. They raised their paddles in salute, then continued paddling into the pages of history. And our little band of travelers bade goodby to the Canoe Country, taking home with them