Nature
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Rationality: Home of The Mind or The Heart?
Many of us in modern, Western society like to say that our feelings are irrational. They are illogical, unreasonable, foolish… When, in fact, our feelings are not irrational at all. They’re probably our best source for the most rational advice ever to exist. We have been using our feelings for decades, centuries, even millennia to…
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Can We Trust Our Brains?
I was thinking last night before bed that our humans brains, although capture so much our our attention, perspectives, and views of reality, are barely big enough to remember what we ate for breakfast yesterday. They must not be that smart or trustworthy. Even Albert Einstein couldn’t figure out everything about this universe. Who knows…
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Lemon Seeds
To squeeze the marrow out of life like we squeeze the juice out of a lemon means we will inevitably encounter some seeds along the way. But these seeds are nourishment, too – they hold wisdom, like a kernel full of secrets – we just need to stop throwing them away. Just because we don’t…
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A Day Where I Felt Really Happy
I was at the ranch in Patagonia, walking in the mountains with only my backpack, some water, and the sun on my face. It was windy but the sun made me feel hot beneath my thermal shirt. I was walking fast up the mountain, listening to Andean music play in the background from my iPhone…
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Evolution Just Wants To Play
What made the first organisms come out of the water onto land? Curiosity. Play. Exploration. What made the first organisms grow legs and eyes? Curiosity. Play. Exploration. Today, we think of play as frivolous. Unnecessary. When actually, it’s everything. It’s the foundation of life. It’s what got us here. It’s the connection between us, life,…
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The 20 Second Trick
Breathing is the answer to thinking. To doubts. To criticism. While we can’t of course stop thinking all together, taking 20 seconds to just simply breathe and not think takes me almost 75% of the way there to the answer I’m trying to look for. We find the answer so much more quickly by actually…
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Cells
Something is pushing new nails from my finger beds. Something is healing over the cuts on my skin. My cells are doing the work but how are they getting the energy to do it all? Yes, I feed my body. I give it the energy through nutrients and care.But I don’t know how to grow…
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Beauty
Plants didn’t need to be beautiful as they grow taller and send their seeds down and feed the animals and clean the air. They didn’t all need to be beautifully different shapes and colors to attract the pollinators. They didn’t need to be as beautiful as they are to function in the cycles of nature…
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Instincts, Our Talking Ancestors
Whenever cats leave their litter box why do they always scratch the floor? Why do they do that? I think when we do things instinctually without thinking about it, it’s because our past selves are talking to us. The versions of ourselves from thousands of years ago are trying to tell us something. We thought…
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Nesting in the City
birds in the city still sing to each other even with all the noise that does not belong. buildings that are not their trees and yet they still make nests. as long as I am where birds are, I can feel my soul, I can be human, and she can nest.
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The Absolute Perfection in Messiness
Life is messy. Trees are messy. They have cracks, they’re sticky with sap, and their leaves have rips and plenty of imperfections. Their leaves make a mess on the ground every winter, the wet and smelly dirt in which their roots grow contains millions of worms and insects. Birds sit on the their branches and…
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Hold Out Your Tongue
A flower will die trying to feed itself with only the water it already contains within itself. And we, too, cannot grow without opening our mouths to water from the skies; without opening ourselves to energy from the sun, or advice from others, or suffering from pain. So trust that you will be nurtured from…
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Why Does Life Want To Keep Growing?
Life developed on this Earth over three billion years ago as little bacteria that lived in the water. They couldn’t breathe oxygen. They couldn’t see. They were just little specs, little particles of bacteria. But nonetheless, they were little balls of energy. Tiny specs of energy. Just as a fetus is formed from one tiny…
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I wish to Be A Tree
I wish to be a tree where people can find shelter, birds can rest, and I provide shade on hot summer days and all I do is enjoy the sun grow taller every day and die every winter just knowing that I will be born again soon and my leaves will be sucked up as…
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Watching Fish
Do you ever smile so hard it hurts? So hard that your cheeks ache and you forget what you were even smiling about? Maybe our idea of smiling isn’t what we do when a camera is pointed at us. Maybe we aren’t supposed to be smiling so hard. Maybe we shouldn’t be working so hard,…
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Oceans
The world is like an ocean and the universe is pushing and pulling us in different directions. Although some of the waves may be large, or small, or seem like they are pulling us away from where we are supposed to be going, the ocean is just using her water to always guide us in…
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Rooted
All trees start as a seed, from a single point. And when the trunk is cut, you can see it’s solar system with different rings, planets, parts, stories, orbiting around the center. You can see the seed in the middle. Every year, the tree sheds its leaves and branches while growing a new layer within…
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Nights (Juicy Moons)
The world looks exactly the same at night as it does during the day. It’s just shined with a different light. Just as we need the sun to grow, we need the night to process, reflect, remember, cry, rest… Just because the moon doesn’t shine by itself doesn’t mean it’s not always there protecting and…
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Mornings (Dancing Bees)
Morning sun warms you up as the moon quiets itself from a night of teaching. Lemon with yerba mate awaken the stomach. Stretches slowly pull on the body. Cats or children climb on you to wake you up. The insects are hard at work finding their food and doing their daily rituals, and I want…
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When We Need Wisdom
Trees teach us that we have to ground ourselves before we can expand. Water teaches us that even though life is unpredictable and always changing, the flow of life is always forward. Wind teaches us to trust the things we can’t see since those are the true forces that move us along. Stars teach us…
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Noble Steeds
Deer protect their loved ones with their life. Even though man has given them many reasons to leave their home, they have not, and will not ever. The power of community and belonging trumps the fear of their life ending one day sooner. And even though deer may not have heroic deaths, like taking a…
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Plots of Land
Birds never stop singing. Fawns are always looking to learn from their mothers. Chipmunks are ruffling leaves, bluejays are gathering seeds, pine needles are making a blanket over the earth as the trees prepare for another rebirth. Voices of fishermen bounce on top of the lake water and travel all the way to shore. No…
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What Do Trees Think About?
I’m writing this under a tree. I needed space. The world likes to take from you. And I admit, I take from the world sometimes, too, when I know I’m not at my state of joy or connectedness. But when I’m not connected to myself, I’ve learned what I need. Silence. Solitude. Nature. Nature never…
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What Is True?
What is true? True is the warmth I feel when I hear a beautiful song. The intuition I feel when I’m in a bad situation. The quickness of breathe I get when I stand close to someone I love. Every. Single. Laugh. The look of pure love in a mother’s eye when she looks at…
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Hearing Your Own Heart
You know those moments when you hear your own heart beating? It definitely scares a part of me, as it reminds me of the only tiny organ that is keeping me alive and the fragility of my survival and the nearing of my death. But another part is grateful, as it reminds me that my…
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North Country Loons
Loons, the great birds of the north country. The ones who wake up at the crack of dawn to go fishing in the calm waters. The ones who sit outside for hours mesmerized by the morning birds and their songs. The ones who would do just about anything to protect their flock, their family, and…
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Hug
It’s like the sun, the moon, and the earth are always hugging us. The sun rises every morning, the moon’s always there even if you cannot see it, and the horizon of the earth always stays in the same place in our eyes every single day. The landscape may change and so may the weather…
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The Point To Life
There is no point to life. But yet, we are all connected. The trees to each other, us to the trees, us to each other. I have a family who created me, ancestors who unknowingly shaped me, and the entire universe who every second is mending me. And I’m mending it back with every breath…
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Santiago
This morning on the way to Santiago has all the emotions, rain, sun, clouds, blue skies just like my heart.
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Rivers
Love is like a river. It flows through our hearts and into others. It makes a song that forever sings throughout each day and throughout each night. It sweeps us off our feet, carrying all the joys of life and bringing more love with each wave. Rivers provide endless hydration, freshness, and inspiration for all…
Ali Walks Around 