“Every morning, I trudge out the side door of the garage and make my way across to the rain gauge posted at the edge of the nearby field. My rain gauge is more than yard art. It is a tool, because the precipitation it measures goes beyond mere curiosity. I have a job to do: to measure and report to a national database what amount of rain or snowfall has arrived to nourish my little patch of land in the past 24 hours.”
“The topic of risk has been hot lately. Maybe it is age, maybe it is experience, maybe both, but it seems as if people are more cautious nowadays. This is simply an observation, said without judgement, but it makes me wonder: where has all our courage gone?”
“It’s gonna happen. You and I and the person across from you at the diner: we are all gonna die. It’s only a matter of time. For a few years now, one of my jobs has been as a Medical Examiner Investigator (MEI). The more I assist families in the wake of the death of a loved one, and the closer I get to my own Date of Demise, the more I ponder what my aftermath can be like in terms of the body my soul will be leaving behind.”
“All year, day by day, I’ve torn a page from the 365-day calendar that was a Christmas gift from my brother. The topic? Moths… Before this, I would have said a moth is a moth is a moth. But I feel changed by 2021's daily glimpse into that world, if only because I am driven to wonder, “who came up with all these crazy names?!”
“What would it be like to be slammed by two Category 4 hurricanes in two weeks? Ask Honduras. On Nov.3, 2020, Hurricane Eta arrived, with Hurricane Iota hard on her heels, arriving Nov, 17. Worse, the hillsides were already saturated from an already record-breaking storm season. Oh, and it was of course the middle of the pandemic.”
“Here, I’ll just say it: I love the Olympics. I just do. I love the Olympics so much that even when we couldn’t afford our own television in the summer of 1984, we rented one for the two weeks of the Los Angeles Olympics.”
“I have always loved flying… There’s something magical about gazing out dreamily, letting the landscape below serve as a motion-picture screen of terrain and geography. I muse about the people down there. Who are they? Are they happy? How are they doing in these times?”
“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.”
