Nature
-
Star therapy
“If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently.” ~Bill Watterson, cartoonist One of my favorite late-summer pleasures is star-gazing on a crystal-clear night. This is more easily accomplished when I’m visiting the west or northwest side of Michigan — the Third Coast, as I like to call it. In the beach towns along Lake Michigan, you’ll find less industrial pollution and more opportunities to spot the constellations. But I’ll watch the stars anywhere. When I do, I always recover my sense of awe and wonder, and the troubles of the day seem so much smaller in starlit perspective. ~CL
-
The one and only you
“Everything in nature invites us constantly to be what we are.” ~Gretel Ehrlich, author Many of us spent our early years trying to conform to the norms or ideals dictated by our parents, peers, religion, and culture. On the other hand, some of us rebelled against them — sometimes for the sake of rebellion, or because we didn’t fit the “perfect” pattern someone else wanted us to follow. Beyond all of this conforming and rebelling is the beautiful, one-of-a-kind essence of who we really are. As today’s thought reminds us, our true nature “invites us” to make that discovery. I’ve learned throughout my life that if I want other folks…
-
Creative cycles
“For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks. Its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.” ~Cynthia Occelli Nature often reminds us that growth and creativity are preceded by change — or “complete destruction” — especially in the fall. Here in the Midwest, some of our trees are just starting to drop their leaves and seeds, and soon will stage a brilliant color show before shedding completely. Likewise, the best way through a creative road block is to remove something that’s getting in the way. Sometimes I have to “undo” a…
-
Storms
“Not all storms come to disrupt your life. Some come to clear your path.” ~Angel Chernoff, Marc & Angel Hack Life Nature has a way of reminding us of who’s in control. Here in southeast Michigan, most of us can recall storms that left us without electricity for days. And in many other parts of the country, major storms have totally devastated the landscape and destroyed homes. Career changes, relationship conflicts, and health crises can also throw us off course or uproot our lives. But as today’s quote suggests, sometimes storms “clear the path” and change things for the better — even though we don’t realize it until we look…
-
Inspired gardening
“A garden should make you feel you’ve entered privileged space — a place not just set apart but reverberant — and it seems to me that, to achieve this, the gardener must put some kind of twist on the existing landscape, turn its prose into something nearer poetry.” ~Michael Pollan, Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education Gardening is one of the healthiest ways to express our creativity. It’s a great way to absorb Vitamin D while plotting borders or containers of colorful blooms, plunging our hands in water and soil, and inhaling the deep-green aromas of rosemary, thyme, and basil. I owe my mother a bucket of gratitude for inspiring my passion…
