It’s a weed. Really, it is. It grows in a road ditch a few minutes from my house. It’s also what author Barbara Brown Taylor would call “an altar in the world.” I mean, look at it! Look at the architecture, the shapes, colors and textures. It once wore a small corolla of yellow petals to seduce the pollinators. Now the curvaceous “belly,” with its flirtatious tutu of re-curved sepals, holds the next generation of the plant. Look closely. Do you see that another tiny creature has made its home here? Maybe more than one! I’m guessing the spider responsible…

Pray. Pray? Pray! It is impossible to come up with one photo to carry the weight of an Advent reflection on the word #pray. The reason is really quite simple. Every time I raise my camera and turn it toward creation is a prayer. It’s a prayer of wonder, a prayer of adoration, for sure. It’s also a prayerful interaction between creatures, a communication, if you will, grounded in the common source that animates us. I mean that even if the other creature is a tree, or even a rock. It’s a prayer of respect, and occasionally, it’s a prayer…

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…