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
Living and Writing in the Natural World
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
Coming of Age, for all Ages
October 6, 2012
It was billed as a “coming of age” ceremony for Kai, but it turned out to be a reminder for any age (and gender) of what it means to be a human. We gathered—the father/son hike gang, but other friends of Kai and his dad Richard as well—at the Headwaters Outdoors School (HWOS) at the base of Mt. Shasta. Think of Lothlorien, but in northern California. Read More
The rhythm of the autumn equinox
September 27, 2012
This past week saw one of the High Holy Days of a Taoist year or, indeed, the year of anyone attuned to the rhythms of the planet upon which we are privileged to reside. I celebrated the Autumnal Equinox by spending most of the mornings of September 21 and 22 bicycling along the Arkansas River which runs through my hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. I was visiting to celebrate Read More
What the Grass Revealed
September 18, 2012
A helpful label in the grass
I had just returned from my "short spin" around the park on my mountain bike today, and it was time to do some yardwork. I cut back the summer's growth of mint in the back yard and put water on it, to encourage sweet new growth. (You have a mint patch also, don't you? How else can one have mojitos at home throughout the summer? It's one of the basic necessities of life, just like having a mountain bike for spins and a large family tent for camping. Basic.) Then mowed the backyard (with my electric mower, probably the last one in Chico, maybe on the continent). As I was gathering up the cord and admiring the elegant way it snaked through the grass, I saw something else in the grass, something Read More
Staying connected to what matters
September 13, 2012
John Muir would escape from his writing (which he hated) in his winters in San Francisco by taking a ferry east or west to the Oakland/Berkeley hills or Mt. Tamalpais and spend the day "rambling". Upon his return he would have an armful of flowers which he distributed to eager street urchins as he took the hill to his Taylor Street room with long strides and a lightened heart.
Like Muir, we all need to take time to stay connected to the natural world, hopefully as a daily or near-daily jaunt. Four or five times a week I get on my bicycle and head for Bidwell Park in my hometown of Chico. My route depends on how much time I have. Yesterday I only had 30 or 40 minutes, so I took Read More
Like Muir, we all need to take time to stay connected to the natural world, hopefully as a daily or near-daily jaunt. Four or five times a week I get on my bicycle and head for Bidwell Park in my hometown of Chico. My route depends on how much time I have. Yesterday I only had 30 or 40 minutes, so I took Read More
Guardian spirits in a Sequoia grove, High Sierra
September 6, 2012
Leaning against a giant sequoia much wider than my tent
Watching the recent full moon, I was reminded of the previous one, which I spent camped under a 22-foot wide Sequoia tree thinking of the last scene of the second act of Humperdinck's 1893 Opera "Hansel and Gretel," where the guardian angels are flowing down the ramp and protecting the forest-dwelling kids.
I had parted company the day before from the other nine members of our annual Father/Son backpacking trip into the High Sierras. Read More