Stalking Annie Dillard

“Stalking is a game played in the actual present.” —Annie Dillard

I often go for walks during my lunch breaks, and when I do, I’m usually reading. I learned this method of multi-tasking as an English major with more books to read in one semester than I could stuff in my backpack. Now that I’ve graduated and gotten a “grown-up job,” I have to fit reading in whenever I can. “Read-walking,” as I call it, allows me to get some fresh air, exercise, and a daily dose of good storytelling.

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Hiking Badger

From a distance, Badger Mountain looks like a barren pile of dirt crowned with cell phone towers. There are no waterfalls, cliffs, or forests—not even a single tree. Yet there is beauty here, and life in abundance, but you have to let go of your expectations of beauty to really see it.

The Kid and the Canal

I’ve heard stories of children drowning in canals. A canal runs past my apartment complex, and it doesn’t seem threatening, yet I’ve heard these man-made streams can be deceptive and treacherous. This one was emptied several months ago with the approach of winter, but during the warmer months it was full of water and life. Green moss billowed on the rocky bottom, ducks dove to catch small fish, and my wife once saw a muskrat scuttle to the water and swim upstream.

Nature Is . . .

Nature is an important part of our story. Mankind came from nature, yet has worked for millennia to remove itself from nature. But we can’t escape the fact that she still calls to us; she is still part of us. And if we listen, we will hear her invitation to come commune with her and learn her secrets.

Writing Retreat

This cabin is a modernization of the past: wood bulwark, tall gas stove trimmed with brass, wagon wheel chandeliers casting a warm glow on the wood floor and planked ceiling.

The Midnight Parable

God’s creations, if we listen, become our teachers. But we don’t like to listen. Humanity is an extroverted race. But I have learned that it is better to listen than to be heard; it is better to see than to be seen. Only when we understand this can we offer something worth hearing and seeing.