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Category Archives: spirituality
Words and wildflowers
Spring is here even in Boulder—at least for today—and now that the trails are mostly dry I am making wildflower rounds again. The McClintock Trail at Chautauqua hosts the earliest blooms, and this morning I scouted for pasqueflowers (no luck) … Continue reading
Posted in nature, spirituality, writing
Tagged biodiversity, gardening with native plants, native plants, wildflowers, writing
3 Comments
Words and trees
This week is spring break at the college where I teach, and I’m enjoying a respite from the endless flow of words. (Ironic that I sit down to write a blog post.) For a person who deals in words, I … Continue reading
Posted in nature, spirituality
Tagged animism, attitudes toward nature, cosmology, language, science and religion, trees
13 Comments
A peace of eagles
Some decades ago the American poet and producer James Lipton revived interest in an old word tradition—giving fanciful names to groups of animals. An Exaltation of Larks explored how English hunters and word lovers in the fifteenth century pursued with … Continue reading
Posted in nature, spirituality, writing
Tagged attitudes toward animals, bald eagles, writing
2 Comments
Reciprocity
I’ve been thinking about reciprocity lately—how it holds relationships together. How partnerships end if one or the other takes more than gives. How wars start over lack of reciprocity—disrespect, seizing land, taking resources. How contracts aren’t successful and trades don’t … Continue reading
Posted in nature, politics, spirituality
Tagged economics, indigenous traditions, reciprocity
6 Comments
Do animals tell stories?
Other animals, that is. Of course we humans are compulsive storytellers. We tell stories to entertain ourselves, to explain the world, to heal each other. Sometimes we call the storytelling ritual “therapy.” But because storytelling requires language, and because until … Continue reading
Posted in nature, spirituality
Tagged animal communication, animals, animism, attitudes toward animals
6 Comments
Scenes from a writing weekend
Over the weekend I had the good fortune to attend a women’s writing and meditation retreat. I can’t think of anything I would rather have been doing in the first days of the new year than listening to poetry, writing, … Continue reading
Posted in nature, spirituality, writing
Tagged meditation, writing
Comments Off on Scenes from a writing weekend
On the blue—and green—religion of Avatar
Let’s get the negatives out of the way first. The movie pits good against evil in a tired old storyline that has less subtlety than a spaghetti western. The postcolonial spin on the tale is that here the indigenous people … Continue reading
Posted in nature, spirituality
Tagged animism, dark green religion, nature religion, pantheism
3 Comments