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Archive for the 'Nature' Category

A new season

( Death and Nature and Whatever )

Listen,
all creeping things -
the bell of transience.
- Issa
It was not wise to go back. You could have warned me. But he wanted to know how to care for the grapevine. And potted plants had been placed on the stoop. That was reassurance.
I could not assume the new people would take up the […]

Out of the frying pan…

( Geography and Nature and Politics )

As you read this I’m on a road trip from San Francisco to Philadelphia, ostensibly to take on a new adventure in life. Yes, you read correctly. I’m driving cross country, in a rented car, in the heat of summer, when gas prices are at an historic high. A more sensible […]

Persephone returns

( Death and Life and Love and Nature )

I became a feminist when I was 24 years old.
I had graduated from college, been promoted to a new position, lived in a swank apartment and flashed a fresh-from-the-velvet engagement ring. In the window of time between waiting and settled, I decided to take a class at the local State University. After looking over my options, I […]

My own private ski school

( Mind & Brain and Nature and Work )

With thanks to MF for the conversation that sparked this post.
I had a problem with timing when I was getting ready to take the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT). Having spent the previous ten years studying, and then teaching English, I was unprepared for the rapid-fire of multiple-choice after multiple-choice questions and could never […]

Toughskins

( Geography and Life and Nature )

The mud-colored water of Silver Creek — The Creek, though we pronounced it “crick” — would turn your tightie-whities red, the color of Arizona red rocks, the color of pueblo clay. Stains that would never remove. And so you’d score points with your mother if you took them off and left them somewhere else while […]