Two interviews on remarkable work: California Field Atlas and The Pacific Crest Trail: Exploring America’s Wilderness Trail

This summer I've been teaching a class at the California Institute of Integral Studies. I had the rare privilege of being able to interview two writers, each deeply involved with ecology, conservation and natural resource management in different ways. I used Obi Kaufmann's wonderful first book, The California Field Atlas as a text for the … Continue reading Two interviews on remarkable work: California Field Atlas and The Pacific Crest Trail: Exploring America’s Wilderness Trail

Coyote in the City

The coyote appeared half a block ahead of me. His brown pointy ears and quick stride gave him away. This was no lost neighbor’s dog racing across 36th Avenue  bounding off down Franklin. This was one of our urban coyotes who takes cats and birds and left half a squirrel on my back patio last … Continue reading Coyote in the City

Nature + Art = Joy + Resilience

Earth is speaking to us and more and more people are awakening each day to her messages.  The evidence of a whole new earth culture rising is visible in all the efforts towards sustainability and righting our relationship with nature.  At the same time, dire messages out there about ecological collapse cause despair and a … Continue reading Nature + Art = Joy + Resilience

In Search of the Mountain Witch

Sometimes you try to keep things a secret but the Universe has other plans. Over the past few months, while working on a novel set in my birthplace of Jamaica and weaving in some ancestry stories, I created a character out of my imagination. This character was a woman who loved birds and had a room full of birds... (Read more by clicking on title)

Between the Paws of the Sphinx: A Solar Eclipse Story

The email invitation to go to Egypt for the solar eclipse in August 1999 hit me in the belly like a lightning bolt. It was one of those rare times in my life when I just knew I had to drop everything and, come hell or high water, follow that thread that pulled me forward from the future. I had to trust that I would be supported to go there.