The Compost Cross

Nature recycles fallen trees by way of decay, breaking them down into reusable nutrients. Bacteria, fungi, and insects devour dead trees that can no longer resist. The very things that the tree defended against when alive are responsible for the tree’s decay....

March of Madness

March Madness. More than a series of games played in March. The madness of exuberant joy paired with unforeseen hope. Heart-wrenching, breath-stopping, out-of-nowhere Cinderellas. At some point a bracket buster takes center stage. It’s part of the madness. Who...

The Umbrella Over You

Move to sunny California, they say. It’s dry and hardly ever rains, they say. We are in a drought, they say. Whaaaaaaat?! Just a few miles from us – in the Santa Cruz Mountains – our good friends dealt with over 7 inches of rain. In one day! To our east, my wife had...

The Tree

There wasn’t a game I played more often as a kid than a good, old-fashioned game of tag. I never wanted to be “It.” I just wanted to run from whoever was.   It was exhilarating and exhausting to have someone on your heels in hot pursuit, so long as you didn’t get...

If You Only Knew

Did she have any idea what just arrived in the mail? What she had hoped for, been asking for, begging for? The Christmas gift she has wanted for several months had, unbeknown to her, already been ordered. It arrived that morning in the mail. It arrived when her...