Reeds in Sand | Moses Lake, WA | 2018
A clump of reeds at the lake’s edge had seen better days. Declining water levels had left the grassy collective high and dry. Beached boats had mashed and broken thousands of stalks. Kids had dug holes and exposed roots. Yet healthy reeds grew tall at (more…)
Beach Week: Moon | Pacific Beach, WA | 2017
My attempts to fathom tidal mysteries have done little more than clog my brain. Concepts such as gravitational fields, force differentials, prograde orbits, and the inverse square law reduce me to mumbling: “Moon bright, moon pretty.” At the beach, I feel a responsibility to understand the tides, since (more…)
Beach Week: Bike | Pacific Beach, WA | 2017
The bicyclist follows the high-water line. He lays a winding track where waves rush up and reach out for solid ground. He traces the ever-changing boundary between disparate worlds of water and air. Where else in life would we traverse such (more…)
Beach Week: Strolling Couple | Pacific Beach, WA | 2017
The world falls away at the beach. The short walk from hotel to shoreline transports visitors to a greater universe — where human arrogance pales amid (more…)
Beach Week: Six Gulls | Pacific Beach, WA | 2017
“As I watched the seagulls, I thought: ‘That’s the road to take. Find the (more…)
Beach Week: Evening | Pacific Beach, WA | 2017
“Perhaps one central reason for loving dogs is that they take us away from our obsession with ourselves. When our thoughts start to go in circles, and we seem unable to (more…)
Beach Week: Midday | Pacific Beach, WA | 2017
“Shadow lies between light and darkness. It may be infinitely diminished or infinitely increased. Shadow is the means by which bodies (more…)
Beach Week: Morning | Pacific Beach, WA | 2017
“The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. One should (more…)
Low Hill | Toppenish, WA | 2018
My few minutes of pondering this stark landscape was interrupted by a huge trailer truck squeezing onto the gravel shoulder next to my car. The driver, a small man with a big belly, climbed down from the cab carrying a bag of Chips Ahoy cookies. “Want one?” he asked. He fished one out for himself, leaned against the hood of my car, and stared at the clouds gathering above the bare rise. “When I was growing up, these hills were nothing to us,” he said, using his cookie as a pointer. “All around us were bigger mountains, bigger skies. Who’d even notice this li’l bump?” But (more…)
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