Courtesy of Mel Shaw How I Became a Nature Writer Originally published in A Wing in the Door I grew up surrounded by a small woods and, because of my artist parents’ solitary life, the trees became more my kin than people will ever be. But alas, for all its charm, my woods was threatened on all sides by exploitation. Looking out from the profound shade of lacy hemlocks, I saw a world now bereft of trees and found no …
Summer Reading At long last it was summer, and, free of school, I could spend more of my time happily lost in books of my own choosing. Remembering that sweet time, my thoughts turn to my father and his splendid library. Like Goethe, my artist father was convinced that in the best teaching the mind is lured, so that learning becomes no martyrdom but sheer delight. Many times, this luring meant leaving improving books lying about where I could hardly …
Recently, my yoga teacher and friend, Tanya Deacove, gave me a wonderful gift when she loaned me Stephen Cope’s The Great Work of Your Life. It turns out that this is a book for all who face uncertainty about life’s true purpose. “What is your biggest fear?” Cope asks. His answer, “I’m afraid that I’ll die without having lived fully” surely resonates for many of us. If you bring forth what is within you, your sacred calling, he says, …