I am a chopper of wood and carrier of water, a keeper of bees, digger of soil, and washer of dishes, but when people ask me "what do you do" I usually satisfy them with "I'm in information technology." If they really want to know, I'll tell them about the decade as a wilderness guide. Some jobs are vocations, some are avocations, but that one was an evocation. I also wrangle pixels and try to herd them into representations of coherent thoughts, which is a provocation. :-)
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” I was sure I heard a cricket the other night, but the creek carries on conversations after dark, so I filed the thought away under “the many sounds of water on rocks.” The next day a yellow butterfly circled our … More Butterflies in December
Tracey and I prefer the views and vistas earned by placing one boot in front of the other. The way our old old hickory tree wears the seasons surpasses almost any view through a windshield. Nevertheless, we ventured out recently to drive about the northern part of our state. This is one of my favorite … More Unexpected Beauty
Who doesn’t love a good campfire? This fascination with combustion is surely programmed into our DNA. Without it we should probably have died out long ago, overcome by those denizens of the animal kingdom that are faster, stronger, and wiser than we are. It was intelligence, not wisdom, that allowed humanity to wield fire in … More Be a Better Neighbor
Work is hard enough. Raising kids, caring for the elderly, eating right, sleeping well and staying fit, all require thought and energy beyond what we spend on the job. This has always been so, but we’ve never felt so tired. We thought our parents were too serious, but we worry more than they did and … More Lighten Up
It was our privilege recently to spend some time in the beautiful coastal plain of Georgia, where, “…somehow my soul seems suddenly free from the weighing of fate and the sad discussion of sin, by the length and the breadth and the sweep of the marshes of Glynn.” We took a meandering route far from … More Bathwater Barracuda
It was one of those full moon days, when everyone is a little bit crazier than usual… Even without the added lunacy, there are some days when you can almost feel the tension in the air, when people seem a bit more on edge, more prone to anger. We’ve long suspected that much of this … More Everything Under The Sun Is In Tune, But The Sun Is Eclipsed By The Moon
Have you heard? Christmas is ruined this year. At least that’s what they say. How can this be? Well, it has something to do with supply chains, they say. The pandemic decimated the work force, and people were cooped up at home for months on end. Then the government handed out a few $trillion in … More An Orange For Christmas
For lovers of words there has been a long suffering concern over the steady decline of the quality of our language. Today’s college graduate would struggle to achieve the style and elegance of “unschooled” farmers and laborers writing home from the battlefields of the Civil War. Language has always been fluid, dynamic and evolving, but … More Bezow!
Autumn is generous and wise, and like the favorite aunt who visits once a year, we’re happy to see her come, and sad to see her go. She arrives with gifts, tells us ghost stories and funny ones, and reminds us to watch where we step. Here in the high country we’re always among the … More The Old Blue Jar
When I was very young, the stories of older people fascinated me. My grandmother’s stories were so vivid that listening to her seemed like traveling back in time. Nostalgia smooths the rough places in our personal history and polishes the mirror of reflection until the image may be somewhat distorted, but most of us remember … More Polishing the Mirror
Outside The Box 