#AdventWord #Brood

It was a hot summer day. I had been butterfly counting for hours and was dripping sweat and running low on water. Time to head for air conditioning. Then I walked up on this little brood, secure in their well-reinforced basket hanging from a branch of a small tree swaying gently in the breeze. Stop. Ponder the wonder of it all.

#AdventWord #Written

Sand is a good writing medium. You’ve seen the photos on social media: a drone’s eye view of a marriage proposal or a love note stomped in sand. Advertiser’s use it, too, although their messages in the sand are AI generated, I’m sure. In fact, it’s such a popular concept you can now go to various platforms online and create a greeting card depicting a sand message signed by you! I prefer writings left in the sand by surf interacting with bits of shell and other beach detritus. One of the photos in my #TrackingTide series is titled “Peace Offering…

#AdventWord #Encouragement

How can the petioles on a willow leaf be such bright red on a gloomy, misty day in December? How can the midrib of the leaf be such bright green, even as the margins are yellowing and the leaves themselves are dotted with the first rusty spots of dying? Hope springs eternal. Thanks for the encouragement, willow tree!

#AdventWord #Equity

There’s something profound about coming eye-to-eye with a non-human creature, especially a wild one. It shrinks the distance between you and them, the species difference, the size difference, the physical differences, and more. Of course I don’t know exactly how the other creature experiences our encounter. I know I spooked a white-tail deer by locking eyes with her. Up went her flag and off she went. But she had good reason to be afraid. I was holding a compound bow with an arrow nocked. This barred owl, on the other hand, sat quietly and stared back at me and my…