Learning from and with our environment and the nonhumans who occupy it.
The ducklings seem to know us now, but even so they freak out, terrified, every time we pick them up. I get the sense that they understand that we lunge our massive hands at them to transport them to a better environment, in a play pen outdoors, yet knowledge of the payoff to come doesn’t […]
Last weekend Carol and I adopted 8 ducklings. They are as adorable as you imagine, with their fuzzy heads and small, high-pitched meeping sounds. Ducks have a reputation for being easily frightened and blindly fleeing as one when scared. No doubt these little folks, new to the world as they are, play to type every […]
Many animals physically challenge each other as means of expressing and enforcing social roles. Their tussling is often harsh, sometimes bloody, and so we call it violence. But really it is the maintaining of order. This is how they do it and when order is established there is no fallen opponent constantly revisiting with anger […]
Have you ever watched a nature program on television or over the internet that showed in intricate, minute detail all that goes into one aspect of an organism’s existence, which left you gobsmacked? Like certain birds who migrate at a certain time of the year to a certain spot on the globe because dust storms […]
Sky is reflecting on Water’s surface while Universe is reflecting in the depths of Water. Sky is blue; Universe is black. Water is blue on the surface; Water is black in its depths. Thought is like Water: absorbing and reflecting the vision of Sky, but is also emulating Universe in the depths of its being. […]
Our friend, Tree, has two personalities. First, the breezy, noisy, forward-looking treetop who engages with other beings in the air and all around. Second, the deep roots ensconced in and engaging the underworld from which Tree springs, but never abandons. The treetop can only imagine what the roots are doing, because the roots are buried […]
Carol, Oscar, Gracie, and I live on 17 1/2 acres. Middle of nowhere. 7 acres of nowhere is a flattened lava field that contains mostly nothing. When we walk through a small corridor formed by the intersection of two lava rock berms, the landscape reveals herself. Looking to our left, we see a trail of […]
I never thought I’d write so much about cats and pigs, but here we are. Cats, I used to be allergic to until I met Oscar, Elvis, and Gracie. I just assumed I’d never be up close and personal with them. Feral pigs, here in Hawaii, outnumber people, so it was inevitable that we’d meet. […]
Spectacular clouds and rainbows fill the sky. The ocean is the clearest, bluest miracle of water that you will ever see. The land is drastic, awe-inspiring, and ever-changing. Birds sound like they are singing it all into existence. This is Hawaii. And if it were any other state in the union, we’d create a war […]
When I moved to Hawaii in 2012, the last nation of critters I thought would be teaching me anything in the tropics were cats. But they are now and forever, so they probably know a thing or two about being. Or being here. Or being here now. Whatever it is. If all cats everywhere could write one […]