Posts
I woke early this morning with the rise of the sun and found my contemplative throne in the heart of my garden. I was surrounded by the nights lingering chill and the early call of the songbird’s elated chatter. I was mesmerized by the refreshing light cast from the power of the great sun, and watched as its rays delicately lay themselves upon each stone, atop each fallen leaf, and along the backs of the China Berry tree branches. As…
When I was about 15 years old, I had just moved from Montana to the Tempe area and I was doing some deep soul searching. I was finding ways of connecting to a place of peace within myself and learning how tame the monsters in my complicated, teenage mind. One day while walking around Kiwanis park, I stumbled, literally, upon a beautiful, antique looking, gold leafed Buddhist meditation book….which, years later, I intentionally left at the same park, hoping it…
Recently my boys and I decided to create art from nature found objects. We made little paintbrushes from dried, stripped and frayed yucca leaves, paste from ground mesquite beans, and textures from leaves, fibers and dirt. We smashed up and grinded flower petals, seeds, cacti and pomegranate fruit to make rich colors and we painted on flat stones and the soft under belly of bark from our Eucalyptus tree. Our hands and feet were stained with earth colors and it…
One day I decided to give the boys some home lessons on American plants and animals that are endangered and on the brink extinction. We learned about the American chestnut tee (and its revival), the Texas Golden Gladecress, the Crimson Hawaiian Damselfyl, The Grey Wolf, American Bison, the West Indian Manatee, we even discovered the debate regarding redheads going extinct. As we tumbled through National Geographic’s, World Wildlife books and Nature Conservancy sites, I was explaining what it meant to…
