I saw a bee on a flower this morning and recalled these words from Celtic thinker John O’Donohue… “Animals know nothing of Freud, Jesus, Buddha, Wall Street, the Pentagon or the Vatican. They live outside the politics of human intention… they already inhabit the eternal… the dignity, beauty, and wisdom of the animal world [is] …
Category Archives: Awe and Wonder
Not To Be Taken for Granted
One of the great pleasures in life during our time in the desert was monsoon season. Mrs. tVM and I enjoyed sitting on our covered decks and watching the lightning flash and the rain pour from the sky in bucketsful. It was wondrous and awe-inspiring. Since moving to the hobbit house a week ago, Clarence …
Two Nights on the Hill
While I fiercely miss the daily companionship of Mrs. tVM, I have found peace in my two nights on the hill since we became ‘homeless’ on Friday. Mrs. tVM will reside with our daughter and her family across the St. Croix River in Minnesota. I have chosen to live with Clarence on the hill in …
Gonna Set My Soul Free
Swedish writer and photographer Staffan Widstrand comments, “Many people have experienced for themselves the value of simply walking in nature, how you return feeling refreshed, how your thinking is clearer and you are more balanced.” My personal direct encounters with nature throughout my life verify Mr. Widstrand’s observation. “In a hole in the ground there …
The Greening of America
This is what Henry David Thoreau wrote in his journal on June 1, 1854. “Within a little more than a fortnight the woods, from bare twigs, have become a sea of verdure, and young shoots have contended with one another in the race. The leaves are unfurled all over the country…. Shade is produced, and …
The Joy of Adventure
There are those activities like fishing for trout that one can devote a morning, an afternoon, even a full day to and never capture as much as a glimpse of the bespeckled fish. That is of no consequence to the devote practitioner who gains as much – if not more – from the activity as …
Encounter the Miraculous
Early this morning, Clarence and I went mushrooming with our good friend Bonnie and her dog Bruno. A thin mist wetted the air and made the leaves greener than Ireland. Bonnie startled me when she called out, “Oh my goodness!” “Did you find a mushroom?” I replied. “No. A fawn!” I immediately put Clarence on …
Scarlet Tanager
Thanks to our good friends, Mrs. tVM, Clarence and I spend two hours each day in the fresh, open air surrounded by fields and forest. With the exception of an infrequent airliner passing overhead, there is no noise pollution and we are immersed in the uplifting calls from a wide variety of songbirds. The variety …
Life Changes
“I have passed the Rubicon of staying out. I have said to myself, that way is not homeward; I will wander further from what I have called my home – to the home which is forever inviting me. In such an hour the freedom of the woods is offered me, and the birds sing my …
Walking in Nature
Thanks to the generosity of our friends Pete and Bonnie, Mrs. tVM and I have been spending more and more hours each day surrounded by the serenity of the natural world. Pete and Bonnie live on a 35-acre hilltop not far from the St. Croix River, and they encourage us to bring Clarence up as …