trees

The Ancient Formula for Gratitude

Opening at random Richard Powers’ remarkable novel The Overstory, we found the ancient formula for gratitude.

An Empowering Short Film on What We Can Do to Restore the Climate (Greta Thunberg, George Monbiot)

From The Guardian on the day of massive worldwide climate strikes comes this excellent 3 minute film on what we/you can actually do to restore the devastated climate. Empowering and essential.

In Memory of W.S Merwin: Life as Spontaneous Poetry

W.S. Merwin, one of the great American poets, passed away on Friday. We found some beauties of poems plus a practice of his that we’re going to try ourselves, in his honor.

We Enter the Woods without Leaving Where We Are (Wendell Berry)

Stumbling on Wendell Berry’s short poem Woods*, we realized that Berry has performed a feat of magic.

Instruction for Not Giving Up (Ada Limón)

Ada Limón’s extraordinary poem “Instructions on Not Giving Up” provides a powerful reminder we sorely need during these dark days. We invite you to pause for a moment and listen…

Talking and Listening to a 3,000 Year Old Olive Tree

The astonishing 3,000 year old Olive Tree of Vouves got us thinking about the intimate ways trees and human beings communicate.

What The Trees Do When We’re Not Looking (with Poem)

We love things that find ways around constraints and are committed to being wholeheartedly themselves. On a walkabout recently, we saw a startling example.

Artists and Writers on Unexpected Ways Trees Impact Us

In the strange, original About Trees, we came across BEWILDERNESS, the best word we’ve heard to describe where we live.

Instructions on Not Giving Up (Ada Limón)

Some time ago, we published a PDF Toolkit of Questions to Ask Before Giving Up. Perhaps as good or better is poet Ada Limón’s wondrous, to-the-point poem “Instructions on Not Giving Up”, which provides powerful instruction of another sort.

Instructions for a Tumultuous Election Day

Has any election in America’s history created as much anxiety as this one? It seems like our very lives are on the line. So we’ve put together some instructions for navigating Election Day.

Walking the Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage Path w Poetry

We thought these extraordinary photographs of walking Japan’s ancient deep forest pilgrimage path would be a fine wait to start the week. And of course we found poems to accompany them…

The Restorative Powers of Forest Bathing

Every now and again, a reader writes something so perfect, it can be a post unto itself.

A Pile of Stones Shows the Way (Mary Oliver)

We opened Blue Horses to this poem and envisioned stones, trees, clouds as we pondered Mary Oliver’s questions, and took in her transforming view of the ordinary things around us.

The Secret Treasure Within ‘Lab Girl’

We abandoned the autobiographical portion of Hope Jahren’s Lab Girl at page 35 to skip through to the short chapters interspersed within in it. They comprise 50 or so pages of superb writing about the secret life of plants that provide hopeful metaphors for our own very human lives. Here are some favorites.

Neon for The Holidays and A New Year

Rookie Magazine’s looks-like-neon sign diy made out of EL wire got us thinking about using THAT as our holiday lighting, with signs showing JOY, or a moderne neon Xmas tree, or WHAT IF? or other messages for the coming year. The battery-powered flexible glowing tube has the essential effect of neon without complex glass manipulation. The process is doable in a few hours: a fine weekend project.

Books for A Good Night’s Sleep

Want a good night’s sleep, or help falling asleep? Reading a relaxing book really does help to shift your mind out of the day. Recently, our friend Merete Mueller told us her strategy…

After We Pass, What Kind of Memorial, or Not?

Recently, we came across this extraordinary Memorial to a Marriage by artist Patricia Cronin. We don’t know when we’ve seen such a tender “real” memorial of and for a couple. It made us think about just what form our own memorial might take. We’ve discovered there are a lot of interesting options IF you shift your view .

The Practice of Seeing Through New Eyes (Proust + LSD)

This quote reminded us of a stunning video of a 1950’s housewife who took part in an early LSD experiment. As the drug takes hold, she glories in the colors she sees and says “Everything is one. Can’t you see it?” Without taking LSD, we find there is still a great deal of unexpected beauty to see IF we practice noticing what’s around us.

Trees Growing Through Obstacles (Like Us)

Our friend Cara De Silva sent us a link to images of trees growing through concrete, with these words. …I was startled and grateful when I looked at these beautiful and inspiring photographs. But not only for the usual reasons. For months now I have been seeing such trees as a metaphor,

Passenger ‘Scare Away the Dark’: Romp in Mother Nature

(Video link HERE.) From Susan Dworski: How better to shout summer? A totally nutball, breakout romp in Mother Nature. Parental guidance: shots of fat guys in their underwear hugging trees.

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