Creative Works

Still Words

The following stories are broken down into genre or series. Just click on a title to start reading if you think it might interest you.

Environmental Essays

Title: Tree Heart
Rating: G
Sample: My dad once told me that he believed that God was a tree, and that each tree has a little bit of soul inside that reaches out and touches us all whenever we stop to admire the beauty within a single leaf.

Title: Forestborn
Rating: G
Sample: There was my house, the roof full of leaves and several shingles missing, and there was my uncle’s house with his large backyard full of dandelions.

Title: Full of Breath
Rating: G
Sample: Some may believe that taking pictures of tombstones is disrespectful, but I believe that within my photography I am keeping something alive – the feeling that I obtain when I immerse myself in the burial grounds of ancient timekeepers.

Title: The Spider
Rating: G
Sample: The Navajo, like the Greeks, have many stories about spiders. Spider Woman, the goddess of infinite possibilities, taught the Native Americans the sacred art of weaving on a loom.

Title: Weaving Memories
Rating: G
Sample: Several of the more audacious spiders are chancing the climb up my legs, though they soon find this to be a hard feat as I flick one after another off my limbs.

Title: Old Man Willow
Rating: G
Sample: When the Earth begins to spin too fast for me to stay standing, I find a place to rest until the dizzy spell has passed. I found one such place on the shallow banks of Lake Komos, under the familiar canopy of a willow tree I have known since I was quite young.

Title: The Shoebox
Rating: G
Sample: Four years old, whiter than white blonde hair and large doe-brown eyes, an orange butterfly cradled carefully in my small hands, a priceless look of joy brightening my young features.

Title: Camera's View
Rating: G
Sample: The view through my camera is perfect: a creek, glistening in the high afternoon sun, fades into the shadows of two leafy oaks and several massively-round, moss-covered boulders.

Title: Sweet Mournings
Rating: G
Sample: And yet, it is not a complete silence. From a nearby blue spruce, a lonely call disturbs the heavy air. It touches my heart with its sad, low song and distinct melody.

Title: Bonds of Friendship
Rating: G
Sample: To some people, it is hard to understand the bond between a pet and an owner. In a relationship of this sort, there is not an animal and a person.

Title: Being Nostalgic
Rating: G
Sample: Later that day on the same hike, we spotted a wolf pawprint inside my dad's footprint, meaning it had stepped in it after my dad had walked ahead of us.

If you'd like, drop me a note and tell me what you think. Enjoy!