The Dead Mole

It wasn’t a mole. But it was dead. I didn’t know what kind of rodent it was (maybe a mouse?), so I didn’t correct anyone. I could just as easily have titled this post ‘The Dead Mouse’ but that’s not what the kids were calling it. The species wasn’t important. Its death was. I was […]

Bird Show Karma

I can’t remember how my obsession with birds began. I was probably in second grade, because by third I was telling everyone I was going to be an ornithologist when I grew up. I remember my grandparents giving me an old field guide to the Birds of North America, a hand-me-down from a retired birder […]

Lotus Pond Poetry

backward baseball hats and red-winged blackbirds bros at the lotus pond ~ dragonflies above tadpoles below lily pad limbo

Wedding Planning Tips for Nature Lovers

I just got married! If I learned anything about being engaged it’s that planning a wedding is not all fun and games and giggles and snuggles. It’s stressful! I gathered some tips to assist and inspire other nature-loving couples who have decided to plan a wedding… My fiancé and I already live together and don’t […]

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