Back to writing ...

I have been writing. I promise. But life has been busy these past several weeks. The time I have had for writing, I have devoted to revising a manuscript, attending a writing conference, and jotting down notes for a new book idea before the thoughts flew right out of my head.

That’s how it goes with writing. As disciplined as you try to be, sometimes you have to focus your attention where the muse is calling. And I’ve been honoring my muse. But I’m back now, and today, I’d like to talk about one particular source of inspiration for my writing. Nature.

I don’t write about nature, per se, except perhaps in this newsletter. I’m not an environmental writer, although I do care deeply about the environment. But I love nature. On spring mornings, I will stand still at a certain spot in my yard where the birdsong is loudest and listen, occasionally pulling out my phone to record the unique choir of cardinals, bluejays, woodpeckers, mourning doves, finches, and all the birds whose names I don’t know. The squawking of a gaggle of geese sounds like a cocktail party, and I find myself listening to discern their words. What are they saying to each other?

This morning, while out with my dog, I watched a gaggle of geese with three broods of goslings grazing in one of our pastures and bathing in the stream that runs through it. The goslings with their light-colored fuzz and baby waddle delight me. And the mature geese are striking in their beauty. I have to hold my energetic, young dog back because she wants to chase and play with this gaggle of geese, and I don’t think the geese would much appreciate her attentions. But here, too, I find inspiration. Each goose has its own personality, and observing the geese, I begin thinking about character.

The geese graze and lounge in the same pasture where my ponies are grazing, and they all seem to get along fine. The geese aren’t wary of the ponies around their goslings, and the ponies give the goslings a respectable amount of distance. If these animals of different species can exist in harmony with each other, surely we can too. Not that their relationship was always smooth sailing. Our mare, in her first year with us, was not thrilled with a goose that she deemed a threatening incursion into her pasture. Goldie (the mare) and the goose engaged in an epic face-off and stare-down, each advancing a step at a time on the other. When the goose decided it had made its point, it flew off, ceding the pasture to Goldie, for the time being. I don’t know what they communicated to each other, but it ended amicably, and Goldie and our other two ponies have welcomed the geese and many broods of goslings to their pastures ever since.

Foxes and groundhogs traipse through the pastures throughout the spring and summer seasons. One afternoon, about a year ago, I stepped outside to see a fox grazing alongside our pony Spot. Now, Spot is a friendly guy and a bit of a clown. He’s a gray Pinto pony, so those of you who are “horse people” will surmise his character by the simple fact that he is a gray. I don’t know what it is about being gray, but gray horses have a certain … attitude, shall we say. We call Spot our court jester. Well, Spot sniffed the fox, and the fox sniffed Spot, and they resumed grazing side by side, the most natural thing in the world.

This morning, I interrupted a cardinal couple that landed on our deck to scavenge through shells of sunflower seeds left by the squirrels, looking for any remaining morsel. The bright, crimson male and the simple elegance of the tawny, red-crested female immediately caught my eye as I opened the sliding door, sending them into flight. I was sorry I had disturbed them, but I hadn’t seen them in time. And I wondered who they were. Were they flying back to their nest and a young brood of hatchlings, or eggs waiting to hatch? Where is their nest? Buried deep in the woods behind our house? High up in the trees in the privacy of branches thick with new leaves? All of these questions lead to ideas, tidbits that I can drop into a post or a story.

Nature also reveals balance. Balance is important in writing and life. In the woods behind our house, there is a fallen log, a large section of a tree trunk that fell from the top half of a very tall tree. This fallen trunk lies, not on the ground, but seemingly suspended in midair, perfectly balanced, perfectly horizontal in the Y-shaped crook of another tree. The fallen trunk is at least 20 feet long and probably a foot wide. It must weigh a significant amount. But it has balanced in the crook of the other tree, remaining horizontal like it is floating in the air, through wind and storms, for at least two years now. Every time I look out across our deck and see that fallen trunk balancing a good fifty feet up in the air, I am amazed. How is it still aloft? How has it not crashed to the ground? Because it achieved balance. And as we all wade through troubling times, we will do well to remember the importance of balance, in our lives, for our creativity, and in our stories.

Thus, nature inspires. Sometimes in a specific way, like thinking about character while watching geese. Sometimes, in a general way, like reminding us to seek balance and find solace and inspiration outside of the specific topics of our writing. Today, nature has brought me back to this newsletter and the power of words.