Saint Mary’s Glacier

Saint Mary’s Glacier

Santa Lucia Mountains, California   “Every individual matters, every individual has a role to play, and every individual makes a difference.” — Jane Goodall   I grew up at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in the Denver suburb of Englewood, Colorado. Whenever...
Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry

Santa Ynez Valley, California   “The Earth is what we all have in common.” – Wendell Berry   If you’re an avid reader of my posts, then you’ve read quotes by Wendell Berry. Berry died Monday at the age of 92. He was born in 1934 in a small farming...
The Wild Locals 

The Wild Locals 

Moss Landing, California   “Attention is the beginning of devotion.” — Mary Oliver   We share our neighborhood with a community of ravens. In the early morning, we can hear them broadcasting the local news, their caws echoing from three or four directions,...
CLAUDE AND THE FAWN

CLAUDE AND THE FAWN

Monterey Bay, Monterey, California   When I was a child, my grandparents showed the family a silent, homemade film of my grandfather on his ranch in Wyoming. He was walking towards the barn, wearing his cowboy boots and hat and carrying a bucket with a big nipple...
Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt   If we consider John Muir the moral conscience of the modern environmental movement, Theodore Roosevelt might be seen as its political ally. More than any other American...
“All Flourishing is Mutual” – Robin Wall Kimmerer

“All Flourishing is Mutual” – Robin Wall Kimmerer

Asilomare State Beach, Pacific Grove, California   I ran into a book last year that I wish I’d read a decade ago, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. It was first published in 2013 and has spread through word of mouth, readers giving away copies and...
Our Bodies Still Remember

Our Bodies Still Remember

Lake Tahoe, California “In short, the brain evolved in a biocentric world.” ~ E. O. Wilson   We’ve carried the daily stress of modern life for so long that it feels normal. Long before phones and computer screens invaded our lives, our bodies...
Earth Day #56

Earth Day #56

Asilomar State Beach, Pacific Grove, California   “You can’t get upset enough to improve anything.” ~ Wayne Dyer How should we salute Earth Day, this honoring of our mutual mother, our blessed terra firma, oceans and mountains, plants and trees,...
 Driving on Sunshine

 Driving on Sunshine

Asilomar State Beach, Pacific Grove, California   “You are never too small to make a difference.” – Greta Thunberg  Driving on Sunshine It’s officially spring, and the trees and plants here are in full agreement, young, tender, green leaves pushing out and...
Lord of Trees

Lord of Trees

Big Sur, California   Just outside Templeton between the north and south lanes of the 101 freeway, there’s a half-mile stretch of road where large oak trees grow in the median. One, in particular, a Valley Oak, is extremely large, its branches reaching out over...