Trees can grow to gargantuan proportions, given the right conditions and enough time. Unfortunately, neither may be available in the Anthropocene. I am grateful, though, for having touched some of the oldest and largest living things on earth.
[Daily post 089 of 260 in my year-long challenge.] ♨
A short poem on hiking: One foot in front, then the other.
Despite who we have been or may yet become, every one of us becomes the forest, struggling to embrace a perfect balance of being.
Review of Permanent Vacation: Twenty Writers on Work and Life in Our National Parks, edited by Kim Wyatt (Bona Fide Books, 2011), an assortment of short recollections by writers who lived and worked in national parks. Sometimes adventurous, even frightening, often poetic, this collection offers intimate views rarely experienced by the millions who enjoy American national parks each year. ♨
San Antonio’s Spanish colonial missions attract local residents, tourists, and others. As the Alamo City approaches its tri-centennial celebration, this may be an apt time for some collective reflection on the importance and value of the historic missions. New possibilities are in the making in this place once called Yanaguana, a place that has become a busy modern city in an uncertain world. ♨
In recent years the National Park Service has begun engaging the diverse peoples of America to tell a more inclusive story of our national heritage. This more inclusive tale allows us to envision a nation that honors the strength and wisdom of our differences. ♨
National parks reveal who we are as a people, what we value, how we envision the future. We learn something of ourselves by viewing our national parklands, monuments, historical sites, battlefields, and other units of the National Park Service through the critical lens of the curious student. ♨
