Without resorting to mythology, our view of nature must be intimate, because in a very real way the breathing of the forests is an extension or our breath, its rivers and oceans the source of our bloodstream, its life forms an extension of everything we eat and digest. No relationship could be closer.

Do not be tempted to fall into another "winter of discontent." What you seed with your thoughts will show itself in your life this coming year. Take care to plant well, to allow what you plant in your mind to germinate creatively, beautifully.

Mother nature is begging us to show her kindness and humility and surrender our will. We must learn from these events and not become harder, prouder and more detached, continuing our indifferent consumption of limited resources, building more homes by the rising sea.

During the storm and in the wake of devastation, safe and secure in my apartment, which blessedly retained its electricity, the WWII anthem "Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer" (Harold Adamson and Jimmie McHugh) entered my consciousness, a reminder of those war-torn days.

Mother Nature has done it again. She slapped us upside the head to knock some sense into us. There is devastation for many. Nothing makes sense for them yet, but for most of us, we've been slapped into awareness.

The circle of time, the celestial cycles, the round of the seasons, surrounds us and encompasses us. All there is, was, and will be exists within its ...

The earth needs our prayers more than we know. It needs us to acknowledge its sacred nature, that it is not just something to use and dispose.