Ask the beasts and they will teach you… –God, speaking to Job. I stood still with my camera mostly hanging at my side. Dixie stood a few yards away munching hay and keeping a watchful eye on me. She is a therapy horse at a stable in southeast Texas that serves special needs children, so she was by no means wild. But I was a stranger to her, and she was none to sure about this human encumbered with a large black object slung across her chest. So I stood still and posed my questions to her in a soft…

The Wild Azalea Trail through the Kisatchie National Forest is wide, well-maintained and well-marked with gold diamonds nailed to trees every 60 yards or so. It would be hard to get lost, which makes it an ideal place for a hiker like me, who often goes into the woods alone. Because I am often alone and the stretches of trail between roads are long–often 5 miles or more, I must park my car at a trail head and walk in and back out. The most difficult decision I must make is where to #turn and head back, where to give…

You can absolutely count on it. If you want to see squadrons of brown pelicans, go to the Gulf Coast of Louisiana. Sadly, the jetty at Cameron, La., has been closed to the public, due to what I am not certain, but the road that takes you to it is now secured by a corporate guard shack complete with uniformed guard who will waggle his finger and motion you back. I know. I tried the last time I was on the Gulf Coast. But if you drive the Creole Nature Trail from Holly Beach to Cameron, you will have to…

Water. It makes our planet blue as seen from outer space. It makes life as we know it possible. Our world turns on #water. What a gift to find our world inverted in a single drop!

I call it “BJ’s Hideaway.” It’s just a short distance off of Highway 165 South, which I must travel with some regularity to get to meetings and events in central Louisiana, like tomorrow’s ordination at a church in Alexandria. An old logging road extends into the Kisatchie National Forest. I’ve never walked as far as I could, so I don’t know where or how it ends, but I do know that a good way into the forest, there’s a longleaf pine plantation. I go there in search of #harmony. Sometimes it eludes me for a time as I remember the…