I have never seen a chickadee drag himself to the bird feeder, reluctant to take a kernel or two.  I have never seen a cardinal fly listlessly from tree to tree. Or a junko not hop from place to place on the ground. Or a wren not look cute and perky. Or a nuthatch not […]

I wish I had a concordance for my own writing. So many times I would like to be able to look up a word and see what I’ve written about it previously. I am making a small step towards that end by organizing and renaming the blog files by topic. By doing this I have […]

It’s a subtle environment for the most part in the Savannah River Preserve. Oh, it has some obvious residents in the water fowl and the alligators that navigate the waters of the small lakes and the vultures that circle overhead. But, as a friend and I last week walked the levees that separate the lake […]

Spirituality can be like going down a fairly straight ladder with your back to the rungs, or like facing the rungs and holding on as you descend. Spirituality, being led by the Spirit of God, and religion, a set of beliefs, rituals and a community drawn together by its commonality, form a continuum that depicts […]

In the language of computers the computer always returns to the default settings, the embedded code which guides the computer’s actions.  Lately I have been thinking that the phrase applies equally well to human beings. Does each of us have a “default” position that we return to when things are difficult, tentative, or unsettled in […]

Seldom do we realize this as we live our lives: we have the cosmos within us! We are limitless beings in rather limited bodies, but we contain all life, just as all life contains us. We are s-s-o-o-u-u-l-l, soul an intimate part of everything, connected on all levels to the essence of life. We can […]

I sit with a cup of coffee on my deck and watch life happen in my yard. I take a slow walk around my neighborhood, way below the pace of exercise, in order to observe what is there or happening in the present time. I just sit and contemplate without objective. These are the actions […]

Everyone is a gift to the world, a neat package of talents, passions and even weak areas, that, if realized and fulfilled, would make a real difference in this world. God has created each of us to be a certain kind of person, to pursue certain interests, to contribute with all of ourselves to life […]

Charlotte has had a particularly dry year this winter and spring, although no one is saying the “d” word yet. I moved here from Northern California where two particularly bad droughts have imprinted on me a need to keep track of rainfall, mostly on the subconscious level. The droughts I lived through there required us […]

Very early in the morning or very late at night, when there is no traffic noise and for some reason I am awake, I can hear the train whistle from far away. It sounds to me like a call to wander, to see new places, and something within me trembles a little at the thought. […]