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Farewell to the Tree
April 25, 2021 In Miscellanea
In June of 2019, after four years of climbing virtually every day, I had to leave the tree. Someday I will find the words for what this creative project–and this tree–meant...
So Many Nights
March 2, 2019 In Climbing Landscape Night Snow Weather Winter
It is late at night, and there is a stupendous full moon.  As I cross to the tree, inky shadows lie tangled on the snow.  The immense orb lies behind the woods, and shadows...
WoodStone India
January 24, 2019 In Miscellanea
The Bangalore region of South India is parched. There is virtually no visible water anywhere and the landscape is mostly stone and dust and the heat of the sun. But there...
Playing with Leaves
January 13, 2019 In Climbing Landscape Snow Tree Winter
For weeks, it felt, the skies were relentlessly gray.  We got a little snow, but more rain, and even more freezing rain.  The snow cover flattened and adhered to the ground...
Hence the Dogs
December 16, 2018 In Climbing Landscape Weather Winter
It’s a recent Saturday morning and I’ve just spent an hour up on top of the house shoveling snow.  The heavy white blanket that took out power and turned the middle of the week...
The Delicious Hunger of the Body
December 6, 2018 In Climbing Landscape Winter
Sometimes charged experiences surface unexpectedly while climbing, like dolphins from the ocean.  This winter I am surprised all over again by the degree to which brushing...
The Great Apple Migration
November 3, 2018 In Climbing Company Fall Landscape Prayer Flags Tree
Three times over the past few weeks I look out a window or door and see a squirrel bounding across the driveway with an apple in its mouth.  Bright gold in the sunshine,...
Scythe!
October 21, 2018 In Fall Taoism Tree
I have fallen in love—with a gently curved length of ashwood and a wicked 65 cm long steel blade.   I’ve been intending to buy a scythe for several years now and finally...
Mountains
October 14, 2018 In Climbing Fall Landscape Taoism Tree Weather
It was a good year for mountains.  The girls and I bookended the summer with two: Mt. Abraham soon after school got out, just before they embarked on their respective summer...
Mephitis mephitis nigra
October 5, 2018 In Climbing Evening Fall Miscellanea
It is late and I step out into the night and head for the tree.  I move across the darkness of the lawn, navigating mostly by the slope of the ground, and then freeze about...
River of Gold; or, This Tree, My Net; or, Replete
September 26, 2018 In Climbing Landscape Miscellanea Summer Tree
Twice this past week, once on Wednesday, after school and before work in the evening, and once late Sunday afternoon, Emme and I, and on Sunday Claire as well, walk a mile...
Mouthful of Stars
September 15, 2018 In Climbing Night Summer
I get back from chorus late in the evening.  It’s the weekend of the Tunbridge Fair and Claire was there instead of rehearsal, and there wasn’t the usual carpool...
The Arden Tree
September 8, 2018 In Climbing Night
It is late Saturday night of Labor Day weekend.  I am at the top of the tree after a long drive back from Lenox, MA, where we saw an outdoor production of As You Like It at Shakespeare...
So Many Gifts
September 1, 2018 In Tree
Recently a friend and colleague retired after many years at the library.  Usually on occasions like this the person departing is presented with a gift.  Instead, she mounted...
Toad
August 22, 2018 In Miscellanea
It is late at night and the rain is steady, soft.  I pull on a raincoat and step out of the house into the darkness.  As I cross the driveway a fat toad hops slowly by, mottled...
Sacred Landscape Bhutan
July 17, 2018 In Landscape Prayer Flags Summer
I didn’t plan to post anything else about Bhutan, but then Emme came home and showed us her pictures.  I can’t resist sharing a few more, with her permission. ...
TreeSong II
July 9, 2018 In Climbing Company Summer
It is a gorgeous Monday morning, and we’ve been serenaded by fiddle and banjo from the kitchen table as we cook breakfast.  Yesterday we hosted nearly thirty Village...
Bodhi Tree Bhutan II
July 7, 2018 In Landscape Summer
Emme has sent a few more photos from Bhutan of a quintessential sacred landscape: Tiger’s Nest Monastery (Paro Taktsang) and its environs, perched on the side of a cliff...
Bodhi Tree Bhutan
July 5, 2018 In Landscape Rumination Summer Tree
Speaking of sacred landscapes (which admittedly I have not done for some time), Emme has sent me from Bhutan a picture of a tree she especially liked, the Bodhi tree in the courtyard...
Microburst
June 23, 2018 In Climbing Summer Weather
Around 3:30 the power goes out.  There are thunderstorm alerts and the sky has darkened, but there is no rain yet, at least not here.  We are leaving for Woodstock in 45 minutes,...
Thrush
June 9, 2018 In Evening Spring Tree
Certain birdcalls change the world.  The hermit thrush, the wood thrush, the veery: they sing and one is transported.  A palpable sense of mystery, a profound beauty, emerges...
Emergence and Dissolution
May 26, 2018 In Climbing Evening Landscape Summer Tree
It is late when I enter the tree.  It is new, this business of entering, at least for this year.  The empty tree one does not enter. One may clamber up the bare branches...
Taking Back the Tree
May 13, 2018 In Climbing Evening Spring Tree
A week or so ago I go out into the late evening to call Emme in for dinner.  As I walk down the driveway an owl slides silently past into a near tree. I stop and watch it on its […]
1,000
April 15, 2018 In Climbing Spring
Large, round numbers have an irresistible allure.  Witness our love of anniversaries, or the turning over of a century.  It occurred to me recently that I missed a good...
The Situational Tree
March 4, 2018 In Climbing Company Evening Miscellanea Night Rumination Tree Winter
Weeks go by and the weather is monotonous, the landscape bleak, the tree uneventful.  It would be easy to stop climbing at times like this.  The practice feels empty of inner...
Branches Like Glass
January 22, 2018 In Climbing Night Weather Winter
It is a Monday evening and I am bringing four girls back from a yoga class in White River Junction.  It has been raining hard for hours and the temperature is below freezing....
The Twilight Flags
January 7, 2018 In Climbing Prayer Flags Winter
For Christmas Emme gave me hand-dyed prayer flags.  She bought them white and dyed them blue, and they came out the color of snow at late twilight.  The tree has been empty...
The Inhospitable Tree
January 1, 2018 In Climbing Landscape Night Weather Winter
Two days before Christmas it rained all day in 20-degree air.  Water froze on everything it touched, and then on top of that, hour after hour.  Ice built up on every surface....
32 Things to Do in a Tree: A Christmas Manifesto!
December 25, 2017 In Climbing Tree Winter
Climb so slowly you’re barely moving. Try to reach the top in ten seconds. In summer imagine a river of sap flowing up into the air through trunk, branch and twig beneath...
Tiny Grave, Tiny Crown
December 20, 2017 In Company Miscellanea Snow Tree
Back when the world was warm and golden, when grasses stood tall in the meadow and apples still hung on the trees, Emme stepped out of the house one morning and came back...



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