I’m not an early riser.This voice inside me grumbles.It hardly seems worth it to get up at 4 in the morning, drive 90
miles and then sit in a bird blind at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve north of Pawhuska on a damp, cold April morning just to watch some bird dance around.

Forget that it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Forget that I will remember it- even dream about it – for the rest of my life. I …

“The whole idea of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot in one’s own country as a
foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles

As you read this, I am experiencing Ireland. It is a trip I have long dreamed of taking. Ireland is an ancestral land for me – my great-grandfather came from Ireland to America as a young
…

Something a little different today. Tomorrow is “Earth Hour.”  This yearly event, created and supported by the
World Wildlife Fund (a global conservation nonprofit whose work I support) has been around for six years. The event sneaks up on me, and I confess to not participating, usually because I
forget.

However, it is good to know that the event is happening, and that it is supported WORLDWIDE! Please read on to learn more …

Today’s Nature Connection is an activity from my workbook, Regaining Sense of Place, 2000.

Have you ever been away from your dwelling place for a few days and returned to be greeted by the familiar smell of home? Maybe it’s the carpet cleaner that you use, or the air fresheners,
but somehow it …

“As time went by, I realized that the particular place I’d chosen was less important than the fact that I’d chosen a place and focused my life
around it. Although the island has taken on great significance for me, it’s no more inherently beautiful or meaningful than any other place on earth. What makes a place special is the way it
buries itself inside the heart, not whether it’s flat or rugged, rich or austere, wet or …

I pull into the parking area at Tulsa’s fabulous Oxley Nature Center and the muscles in my back instantly relax. It doesn’t matter what season of
the year it is, or what the weather might be doing. For me, in many ways, a visit to Oxley is like coming ‘home’ – to the place where I am my true self, and feel the happiest.

I come to the Center knowing that I will feel peace. It’s also likely that I …

This week’s connection focuses on three pairs of animals that often are mistaken for each other. With Spring on the wing, we’ll all be seeing them
soon, if we haven’t already. But the next time you see them, you’ll know for sure what they are, and why.

A Butterfly and a Moth?
The wings of both are covered with …

Great poets, philosphers and naturalists alike love to comment about spring. In today’s mediation, enjoy these words and reflect with me on the
change of seasons. Spring 2012.

“To those who observe nature from day to day, the coming of spring is announced first of …

She waits, drained of life, lying on her back in the rich earth, stretched out, head cradled in her arms. Above her, the sky is dark blue and
full of tiny white lights. Mesmerized by the living strobes in the sky, she watches.The way the world has been for the past six months is about to change. It is her redemption.

Almost imperceptably, the dark blue of the sky is not quite so dark. A few stars twinkle out. The horizon lightens. …

Oklahoma is a wonderful place to be to observe birds. So many species either live here, or migrate through here, that it is a birder’s paradise. I
take for granted that so many types of birds flit through my back yard, stay a few days and then fly on. But there is more to the story. Many of the beautiful back yard birds that we all enjoy
seeing actually migrate. And now is the time of year …