“A man I knew years ago named David Rankin once wrote, “ I refuse to wish away the winter.” I am reminded of his poem whenever someone complains about the weather. How can we really justify wishing away what we have right here, right now, before us? The easy things are a comfort, true, and deserve appreciation. The harder stuff? It always has its own gifts and lessons.”
“[After] starting the final load of laundry… I heard an uncharacteristic thumping sound and fretted distractedly that maybe the washing machine was going on the fritz. “I wonder what that is,” I thought… Something must have fallen into the dirty pile, maybe. As the muffled “thump, thump” continued, my curiosity was nudged a couple of more times, but only vaguely… Stupid washing machine...”
“I found myself on the high plains of north-central Montana, near a town called Choteau… the Freezout Lake Wildlife Management Area. With its 11,350 acres under state management, it is host each spring to more than a million migrating birds of some 200 species.”
“The second week of April celebrates a group dear to my heart: 911 dispatchers. They are the ones you’ll talk to if/when you are in the throes of a need for emergency assistance. At that moment, surely, your heart rate will be elevated, you will feel an urgent need for help, and you will be grateful for that calm professional who answers your call: the dispatcher…”
“I journeyed out of my cocoon this week, all the way across town to the Grand Rapids (MI) Frederick Meijer Gardens, where the annual “Butterflies Are Blooming” event was in full sway. Touted as the “largest temporary tropical butterfly exhibition in the nation,” it is, indeed, a rite of spring no one should miss.”
“Elephant Nature Park, 60km outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand, is populated by many elephants with stories of abuse and neglect. This remarkable place was founded in the early 1990s by Lek Chaillert, a visionary woman who set out to change long-standing use (and misuse) of these majestic animals.”
“Here’s the routine at our house when it’s time for the dog to go out. There’s no doggy-door. There’s no letting her out to roam (I’m too paranoid of skunk stink for that). We always go out together. She relieves herself, and I get the excuse of grabbing some fresh air, a look at the sky, and the chance to hear the quiet of my rural place.”
“In one year, something invisible without magnification has gripped the entire world in its clutches. Not a person on the planet hasn’t been touched, and will continue to be touched, by this microscopic enemy. Crazy.”
“…it is possible to employ calming balms during fever-pitch times of fear and anxiety. The choice to use them? Well, that’s yours. Wrapping yourself in calm is a self-directed strategy. But the effort can work well, and is worth the effort… When we’re able to step back from the fray, we gain perspective. When we quiet our minds, they can refill with welcome awareness.”
“About forty years ago, I gave myself one of the finest gifts ever: the reframing of an interior life that was dark, depressed, and negative. Learning a new habit to choose a fresh, upbeat approach to my days was demanding work… Gradually, I was able to build a new way of life…”
“For ages, many people have grown up wishing to become a firefighter or police officer… Then there’s EMS. Emergency Medical Services. EMTs. MFRs. Paramedics. Medics. Ambulances. Rescue. What? Who or what are all these things? The general public is understandably confused by the jumble of EMS terms.”
“As summer receded, and the sun on the deck for time with friends backed away from the cocktail hour, and warm layers were increasingly warranted, it occurred to me that we—my circle of friends, all of whom are very COVID-careful—would need a safe gathering place on into the grey tunnel of winter. What better thing, I thought, than a fire circle?”
“On the evening of the 2016 election, I decided to entertain myself with a contest to see how long it would be before I heard the word “2020." It happened (no surprise) in minutes. In so many ways, it’s been a long four years.”
“Then there are the Dorado Days of my native state of Colorado. “Dorado” is the Spanish word for “golden,” and each aspen leaf has the wonderful appearance of being like a gold medallion. At times, the aspen leaves blanket the ground such that walking through them is deeply enriching and a little magical…”
Just now, while renewing my morning tea, waiting for it to steep, Tuesday’s dinner drifted back into my awareness. Looking around at what there was in the kitchen, I polled my tastebuds, wondering, “what would be good?” The idea of Mexican food bubbled up, seemed interesting, appealing. “Hmmm,” I mused, “maybe that’s a good idea.”
“It was three days before Christmas, 1953. In an era when women often spent many days in the hospital after childbirth, the doctors told my mother to go home, to be with her family for the holidays. Her new baby was going to die anyway.”
“Far-away places seem ever so much more so lately...but let’s go to the Weddell Sea anyway. It’s an historical Sea, often trapping explorers and thwarting expeditions… As part of the icy world cupping the southernmost extent of the planet, the Weddell Sea is about as far away from our COVID world as a person can get.”
“One of the lovely lessons of this year are those delivered by things I usually appreciate largely in passing. Instead of glancing at something pretty, I stop now, and really take it in. There’s time… And in the passing of time, I have begun to see the evolution of brief lifetimes. So it is with the lotus in my fishpond.”
“Normally, sleep comes easily and lasts well for me. However, for no discernable reason, one night recently, I woke up at 2:15am, and didn’t slumber again until after five o’clock. As soon as I was up for that regular nocturnal bathroom trip, I could tell that I was unusually wide awake.”
“Sometimes the sky is a great escape, a place where a person frazzled by the terrestrial world can send thoughts that seem to have nowhere else to go. Looking at the sky raises my eyes up, away from the fuss and bother of whatever is before me.”
