by Bela Johnson | Jan 19, 2012 | nature, Uncategorized
Summertime in the low desert of the American Southwest can be brutal to the point of deadly. Temperatures soar well into the hundreds, and highways, though improved from the days of my youth, provide no great sense of security to those in the know. The landscape is...
by Bela Johnson | Jan 5, 2012 | Hawaii, nature, psychology, Uncategorized
Wind in and of itself makes no sound. It passes like a wraith in weakness and in strength. What creates noise are the obstacles that impede its path: overhead cables vibrating and thrashing with an eerie whining whistle; grasses hissing and sighing as the backs...
by Bela Johnson | Jan 3, 2012 | nature, psychology, Uncategorized
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhL9emHJKeQ&feature=related] I don’t really care to dance. Don’t ask me. I mean, if you did I might give it a go, just because you’re my friend – in good faith, just to prove I’m not a killjoy. But I’m not...
by Bela Johnson | Dec 21, 2011 | animals, nature, Uncategorized
Inexplicable, this love affair I have with Raven. My father hated the bird – stealer of eggs, killers of fledglings. It was in fact his disdain for these predators, combined with a protective reflex for their prey, that may have endowed the man with respect for...
by Bela Johnson | Dec 20, 2011 | animals, nature, Uncategorized
One crisp fall morning about a dozen years ago, I spotted an adult female moose some hundred feet from the house. Steaming cup of tea in hand, I scuffled into house slippers and stepped outside to have a closer look. Though we lived in the Maine woods, a moose...
by Bela Johnson | Nov 17, 2011 | compassion, nature, psychology, Uncategorized
I know this one – cane spider who has been living in our bathroom for weeks. When first I encountered the species, it was twenty years ago on Moloka’i. My husband was so distressed, this gentle man removed one of his slippers (island vernacular for flip-flops)...
