I am fortunate to work at a school with such an incredible arts program. Whether students spend one year here or fourteen, they have many chances to share their creative selves with teachers and each other daily. From performances at Grandparents and Special Friends Day, to Revels and Spring Festival, our students consistently blow us … Continue reading
“It was about an hour after sunset. The Catlin Gabel campus was completely still all around. But yet, nothing was still at all. Not even the tiny bright green fern sprouting from rich soil. The wind went crazy and there were way too many bird calls around to keep track of, and yet not enough. … Continue reading
Spider Weather by James Morrison These are the warm calm days before fall strips the trees and rain turns the ground slick the sky unpredictable, the days of yellowjackets and fruit flies that hover over the last wave of fallen apples and grapes. I’m spending time with the fat orange and brown spiders tying pitchfork … Continue reading
Winter. Time for what’s told only when light makes itself scarce. Slight days, cold-hefted nights lengthened for listening from the poem “Gather Close” by Paulann Petersen One day, we took a drive. Wheels turning along the banks of a great river, past the lacy descent of a waterfall, under the shadow of autumn hills, to … Continue reading
I have a fascination with spiders. Maybe it’s their artistry, an ability to create intricate structures that serve as both homes and practical food-capturing devices. Maybe it’s their solitude– how they live alone, work alone, spending hours waiting…waiting…patiently, high in trees, low in branches, on fences and between houses. Maybe it’s how their webs catch the … Continue reading
Is it fear or modesty? I stand too close to see her canvas, but approach slowly, in friendship. You also may like: Reptilian Tasting Flight and you may want to Read more about Vanessa virginiensis, or the Painted Lady Butterfly. Continue reading
I sit quietly in an ornately decorated Portland church, hands in my lap, surrounded by the smell of incense, colorful stained glass windows, and the solemn but soaring crystalline melodies of a choir singing Fauré’s Requiem in Latin: Fac eas, Domine, de morte transire ad vitam (Grant them, O Lord, to pass from death to … Continue reading
“Wow! We’ve seen 147 Trillium! Look at how prickly that Oregon Grape is! Can I try tasting this Indian Plum leaf? Look at how gnarled that Douglas Fir bark is! Did you know that it’s illegal to pick a Trillium? Hey! That’s the call of the Winter Wren! That’s an awesome bandit costume you made!” … Continue reading
Believe it or not, it’s been almost exactly two and a half years since I started writing regularly in this blog when I moved to San Francisco in 2010. Surprisingly or not, my conception for this blog has changed since then and I have been living in a different city for almost two years! I … Continue reading
A Saturday morning in December. Drizzly. Cold. Steel-like. The sidewalks are slick but I’m out running, breathing in the cold air like I’ve never breathed before. My hands are clammy with rain, clutching my house keys desperately. I urge my legs to go faster, wanting to feel them straining, wanting to feel my lungs hurt. … Continue reading
in the midst 