In 2004 I was hired to help edit the book 
What’s Right with Islam Is What’s Right with America by Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam and educator who is spearheading plans to construct a Muslim cultural center—not a mosque—two blocks away from the site of the World Trade Center.
As an editor, I am paid to get inside the heads of authors. And Imam Feisal was generous in letting me get inside his. read more…
Over the weekend I added a little email sign-up form to the right. I’m in the process of writing a book—more on that to come soon!—and I’d like to stay in touch with everyone who, like me, wants to connect with nature more deeply.
The newsletters I send out will be different from the blog—more personal, with news of how the book is coming, and notices of events like readings and workshops.
Please, if you are interested, take a moment to fill out your first name and email. I promise, no more than one newsletter a month!
We gathered at the trailhead early Saturday morning, 
a small bunch of strangers. The sky was overcast, a perfect start to a hike in July. Lauren introduced herself—the naturalist who had called our new Meetup group together. (Within days of posting her invitation, 80 people joined the group!) We were going to explore the mile and a half at a leisurely rate, see what we could find.
At the trailhead the last of the larkspur greeted us. Lauren said a week or two ago the trailhead was awash in larkspur. read more…
In case you thought Boulder had no sense of humor . . .
The conversation around the table turned to the gushing oil in the Gulf of Mexico, the sense of powerlessness we all feel to do anything about it. We know our lifestyle is driving the need for oil. We know how complex the economic problems are, the entrenched special interests. “What can we really do?” asked one person.
“What about reciprocity?” I asked. At bottom, our ecological crisis boils down to one simple fact: humans are taking more than we’re giving back to the Earth. What if each of us started giving back as much as we take—in all our relationships, with the human and more-than-human worlds? Even a simple gesture like showing gratitude can make a difference. Everyone loves to be thanked! Reducing our use of unsustainable resources is a solid first step in giving back to the Earth.
What follows are 10 close-to-home ways you can give back to the Earth. read more…
It’s the bane of gardeners throughout the arid West—the boa constrictor of the weed world, twirling nasty vines around other plants, stretching its stringy rhizomes underground for what appear to be miles. Gardeners in Boulder joke that “it’s all just one bindweed,” impossible to get rid of. Here it is ascending a blooming yucca near my house, circling counterclockwise as it always does up a stem. It is said that bindweed can complete one circle in two hours. Talk about a blight!
In the native plant garden at Chautauqua, the other volunteers and I spend hours digging it out, trying to prevent it from choking out the precious native wildflowers. All, it seems, to no avail. Bindweed is a public enemy—out to take over the world.
Or is it? read more…
My sore ankle won’t yet handle the several miles of round-trip over Goshawk Ridge, through some of the most beautiful wildflower display you will see anywhere in Boulder County, but this week I got as close as I could by way of the Fowler Trail. (From 93 south, turn right at the light toward Eldorado Springs. Just past the parking lot for Doudy Draw is a sign on the left for an ashram. Turn left on the dirt road, go to the end, and park. You’re at the trailhead.) A field of heart-leaved arnica greeted me a short ways in:
The native garden is blooming! After about six weeks of tending by a cadre of volunteers, the garden at Chautauqua bursts into June. Earlier this week the golden banner was striking:
I sprained my ankle last night—pretty bad, as the history of sprains in my life goes. I was minutes away from leaving for my ceramics class when I took the spill. And the fall led to an evening with mud, but not in the way I had intended.
I had headed out the back door to look at lilac buds on the cusp of bursting into full bloom. read more…
Update May 3: This post appears in the Scientia Pro Publica blog carnival hosted this week by marine biologist Kelsey Abbot at the Mauka to Makai blog. Check out some of the fascinating science writing available at the carnival, such as GrrlScientist’s post, “(How) Are Birds Affected by Volcanic Ash?”
People sometimes ask me where I fall in the science-religion debates. I teach the one (religion), I study and often write about the other (science). But I think both science and religion often skip too quickly over what ought to be the main attraction: the natural world. The world of fox kits and forests, eating and being eaten, thunder and sunsets. The world immediately available to our senses. This is the world often bypassed in the rush to explore some dimension regarded as more important, more true, or more “real.”
