Monet’s Masterpiece
At the age of 81, it looked like Claude Monet was all washed up. His eyesight was dimming, failing—the worst possible calamity for a painter. But he was working on a project—and he had to finish it. Beginning at the age of seventy, cataracts had slowly begun to thicken over his eyes. They blurred his vision and changed his perception of color, making it hard for him to perceive greens and blues. His world of sparkling waterlilies faded to a muddy yellow fog. Surely it was time to quit. He’d had a good life—unlike most of his contemporaries, he’d achieved fame and modest fortune. He was a...
Read MoreChicory: The Road-Watcher
As you stroll along a country road, the chicory almost seems to stand and watch you go by.
Read MoreYellow Rattle: The Meadow-Maker
Yellow rattle is an odd-looking little wildflower that improves habitat for native plants. It’s fighting a quiet battle to create diversity in the meadow.
Read MoreO. Henry At Pete’s Tavern: The Gift of the Magi
O. Henry liked to write in his neighborhood tavern–Pete’s, in New York City. You can sit at the very table where he invented his most famous tale: The Gift of the Magi.
Read MoreA Close Encounter of the Wasp Kind
We’re never going to be best friends, the wasp and I, but we don’t have to be enemies, either. We’re just neighbors.
Read MoreLove Nature? Take a Hike to the Ballot Box.
We can win by saving what we love instead of fighting what we hate. So many of us are deeply moved by nature, and find peace and solace there. Yet few people make the connection between the relaxing beauties of nature and the hard work of voting. In the terrified aftermath of November 2016, as we faced the reality that yes, Donald Trump had really been elected President of the United States, a certain poem often cropped up in my Facebook feed. It’s called The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry, and in those unsettling times many people turned to it for support, and still do. When despair...
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