On a lark, I decided to dip into the park returning from getting the newspaper at the corner 7/11 this chilly morning. I had just turned the loop at the 1 mile mark, and was bicycling east, when I looked up and noticed that the dawn sky was ablaze with golden clouds. Now it’s nice to know what the ground looks like ahead of you, Read More
Living and Writing in the Natural World
Taking Time
December 7, 2012
I’m with the Taoist tradition of China and the environmental stance in America, that it’s important to spend time in the natural world. A week in the High Country, or an hour walking “the route” beside Chico Creek with my wife in the evenings. In addition to these longer times, it’s also good to give yourself a break from the rat race and take briefer moments throughout the day to remind yourself of what’s important. It needn’t be long. Yesterday, it was 2 minutes and twenty seconds for me. Read More
Celebrating
November 29, 2012
To live in the natural world is to celebrate. To celebrate its seasons, certainly. The harvest season of the fall must surely rank high on holiday celebrations. As with the pilgrims and their Indian acquaintances, Thanksgiving is just that celebration. Last week my family’s Thanksgiving celebration took a new twist. Read More
Nurturing the Connection
November 21, 2012
Getting back from my two-week annual “retreat” to Hawaii has been, as always, an adjustment. Suddenly I have a wife (and until this year, kids) to interact with all day, rather than being essentially a hermit in Hawaii. That’s the easy part of the adjustment, since I’m blessed to enjoy the company of my family. More challenging is coming back to continental autumn or winter weather Read More
People, Beaches, Hawaii
November 14, 2012
(Hawaii again?! Hey, I’m here for two weeks and this is a weekly blog. Next week I’ll be back on the mainland.) After my usual morning routine (see my earlier posting) I noticed it was low tide around ten o’clock, so I tightened my teva sandals and walked “tide-pooling/beach-combing” along the base of the seawall Read More
A Hawaiian Interlude
November 9, 2012
Whenever the first cold, rainy days of winter hit—late October, early November where I live—I do the only sensible thing for someone not tied down by a job. I head to Hawaii. Not for long—two weeks, never more than a month. And here I am today. Now you can get outdoors and get your daily time in the natural world in the winter, for sure. But not wearing nothing more than a swimsuit and Teva sandals, Read More
A Summer Evening
November 4, 2012
August 1979. Heather and Holly and I rode down to the stone wall by the creek this evening, Heather on her bike with training wheels, Holly on the handlebars of my 3-speeder. They wear new swimsuits, I only my jeans. The air is warm. We walk the bikes the last couple of hundred yards, as that stretch is not paved and Heather’s back wheel dangles in midair frequently between the two training wheels—a frustrating experience not to be endured by a five-year-old. Read More
Huck Finn in California
October 28, 2012
As I bicycled under the arched Valley Oak trees in the park yesterday, watching the gold and russet leaves twirling to the ground, I felt like a boy on an adventure. The seasons are changing, and I was abroad navigating the changing world. The child-like sense of wonder is one of the most precious gifts we receive as we move through the natural world. Certainly John Muir was sensitive to this wonder, and nothing better illustrates this than his incredible adventures in the fall of 1877. Read More
What Muir Knew and We've Forgotten
October 22, 2012
Sticks, hat, and 40 pounds of trouble
As my wife accompanied me on morning walks preparing me for an upcoming backpacking trip this summer, I entertained us by singing a boyhood song, heard on TV’s Lawrence Welk show (yes, I’m that old): “I love to go a-wandering, my knapsack on my back. And when I go a-wandering, this is the song I sing: fol-do-ral, fol-do-ree, fol-do–" Well, you get the idea, and maybe even know the song. During the actual trip, I had occasion to be reminded of one very crucial word of that song, much to my dismay. Read More
The magic of the night
October 15, 2012
First the owl—probably a great-horned—whooshing over the car in the darkness. Then an opossum on the side of the road, debating between irrigation ditch and asphalt as I bore down on him. By the time the young black-tailed jackrabbit loped across the road, I was remembering a lifetime of night-time adventures in the natural world, and the magical spells often accompanying these dark moments. Read More