Vague Prayer, Specific Answers

Fallen Coast Live Oak, Quercus agrifolia   When a Tree Falls Yesterday morning, as I do each morning, I prayed while showering. Usually I use this time to pray specifically about the day ahead, lifting up friends and family with needs, giving thanks, and asking for help with the challenges I foresee. It’s a good habit for […]


Wired for Worship

Rainbow, Anza Borrego Desert, California, October 2010 It’s the Creator I feel respectful in the desert. It’s vast, and calm, and if I look carefully, I see a tremendous, subtle variety in color and form. Almost always it’s really cold or wiltingly hot. Surprising weather can develop at any moment. Motu Tautau, Tahaa, French Polynesia, […]


Artist and Arborist

Hudson Mills Park, Michigan.  Photo by Bob Coller     My friend Bob graciously granted me permission to share this amazing photograph with you. Stripped Bare This season brings us a magnificent display as trees present their finale before dropping their leaves to face the winter months.   Artists appreciate the spare beauty of bare wood, the […]


Out on A Limb

 Tall Eucalyptus with Brittle Branches Why Birds have Wings, and We Don’t Last week I watched as a crow lit on a branch high in this tree, outside my office. The limb gave way under the bird’s weight. The crow rode down about fifty feet, still perched on the falling branch. No more than ten feet from the […]


Guided Tour

…Bumpy Road I love this photo of my daughter, my grandson and me walking in our neighborhood. The street is gravel, rutted; from this vantage point you can’t determine what direction the street takes up ahead, when you reach the point where the trees appear to be growing right in the middle of the street. Left, […]