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
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
THE CHARMING LITTLE tea set below belonged to me as a very small boy. I guess. I don’t remember it, but many decades later, when my mother was failing, she passed it on to Kathy, saying ‘You might want to have this, it was Dougie’s when he was little.’ It was evidently a gift, perhaps from my Great Aunt Mary,
I KNOW, FRIENDS. I know. Sometimes—some days—it’s just too much. To see so much being destroyed. To see the Justice Department being destroyed. The FBI being destroyed. Health and Human Services being destroyed. Virtually every federal agency that does anybody any good being corrupted, hollowed out, and destroyed. Wild and natural areas being destroyed. International alliances destroyed. Communities and their
THE BALANCE OF GRATITUDE: Occasionally, in times of trouble, nothing seems to help us keep our balance quite as well as gratitude. I know, when you’re feeling scared or depressed or angry, gratitude is pretty much the last thing on your mind. But that’s kind of the point: changing—recalibrating or reorienting—the mind. Recovering a sense of balance. We are not
THE LAST BOUNDARY: We are bounded by good things. Things that enfold and nurture our lives. Things we notice and appreciate. The simple love of family and friends. The rising of the sun and the goodness of a new day. The warmth and comfort of home. An apprehension of beauty. Our lives are bounded by other things, too. By reality.
HERE AT THE CHURCH O’ THE PINES, we have an idea. It kind of permeates the whole place. The idea is that we all belong. Despite any differences. The red squirrel belongs and the gray squirrel belongs. The great horned owl belongs and the bald eagle belongs. The white tail deer belongs and the red fox belongs. The chickadee belongs
PARKAS. HOT DISH. AND DEFIANCE. This morning we awakened at the cabin-in-the-woods to below zero temperatures. Again. But this was a day when St. Cloud, Minnesota, not very far away, was having a major ICE-OUT rally. And since we were unable to attend the massive Minneapolis rallies of the last two weeks, It was time to go. So, the big
NO ASSURANCES: When traveling in the car, I often listen to the Sirius satellite radio service. It’s a wonderful idea and I don’t know how I ever got along without it. Although to be honest, out of the hundreds (?) of channel choices, I only listen to a very few. One of those few is 40’s Junction. For those unfamiliar,
FRIENDS: Thank you for being here at what we often call our virtual Facebook campfire. A campfire is many things, and as a wilderness guide I have sat beside hundreds of them. It can be a place of rest, of refuge, a place of warmth, a place to reflect and share stories, or simply a space to to absorb the