Cherry Blossom Haiku

reading haiku on the metro, en route to cherry blossoms a cherry blossom falls in the shadow of the Washington monument cherry blossoms float in bunches toward the Potomac and the Atlantic in the tidal basin a duck pair forages among flower petal sludge reflections of cherry blossoms in goose wake- petals ripple branches heavy […]

A Primatologist’s Commentary on the Term ‘Monkey Mind’

I recently went to a meditation class. Through all the guided practices for sitting, walking, and loving-kindness meditations, the instructor did not once mention ‘monkey mind.’ Thank goodness! Have you heard the term? ‘Monkey mind’ is often used by Buddhists and others in the mindfulness community to refer to the tendencies of our distracted minds […]

We Is One

“Oneness is always growing in the world, boy.” This quote is from the children’s book Pax by Sara Pennypacker. As I listened to it in my car, the sentiment hit me like a ton of books. To the extent that I am a spiritual person, oneness is it. Unity. God. I am the whole universe and […]

Happy Spring Haiku

the flower’s beauty betrays its bizarre name- bloodroot

Befriending My Neighbor, the Red Maple

Trees are living things, individuals. We see them every day; yet, we barely notice them. I have an interesting relationship with trees. For a while, I only saw them as homes and resources for the animals I was more interested in watching, mostly primates and birds. I knew that the giant, twisty, old, Spanish moss-covered […]

Nature Journal Haiku

inland studying coral smelling the sea

New to Nature Journaling

I recently learned about nature journaling as a tool to connect kids with the natural world. It wasn’t long before I decided that it would probably benefit me, too. I often feel overwhelmed with all that I want to learn, and nature journaling seemed like a fun, creative approach to focus my attention and learn […]

Beaver Believer with Beaver Fever

I am newly obsessed with beavers. Aquatic rodents, ecosystem engineers. They are fascinating animals. I keep coming back to the same thought, “Apes don’t do this stuff! I am a primate person and a rodent is blowing my mind!” They are social, monogamous, cooperative. Busy and eager, sure. They are efficient builders, eating, constructing with, […]

International Macaque Day: Preschool Edition

It was International Macaque Day 2018 in the Brown Bears (three-year-old) classroom. I showed my students pictures of different kinds of macaque monkeys and told them about how I lived across the world and took pictures of animals who ate fruit that people grew in their gardens. I showed them an article in a kids’ […]

When Encouraging Kids to Love Nature Backfires…or Does It?

One day I heard from a teacher (I’ll call her Ms. Kasey) at the preschool where I used to work. She told me that one of my former students (I’ll call him Cody) was stung by a wasp while trying to pet it on the playground. I immediately felt guilty. I am the one who […]