“You never miss the water ‘til the well runs dry.” – Lil Ed and the Blues Imperials Water is one of those things that seems like it’s everywhere. Until it’s not. Then it may be too late. Water belongs to none of us and yet belongs to all of us. If the water dries up, it dries up for all […]

Late last fall, I took a walk in forested bottomlands where the Sangamon River meanders through. Well-established trees grew on top of oddly geometric earthen dikes, now breached in several places, and therefore long past their useful function. A coyote hastily dashed across the makeshift, vague trail out in front of me, long gone before I could click on my […]

When it is seventy-five below zero, a man must not fail in his first attempt to build a fire—that is, if his feet are wet.  Jack London, To Build a Fire Not to be overly critical of classic literature, but I think that a fire’s a pretty nifty idea even if it’s a relatively balmier 10 or 12 below, and […]

He said, “I love you.” And she said, “I’m glad you think so.” Yes, he was very much in love with her. Or at least, he thought he was. It just felt so right. She was a nature girl, always dressed in earth tones and strikingly beautiful in that natural way. They spent almost every weekend afternoon together and during […]

A friend recently posted on her Facebook that she received the book “1000 Places To See Before You Die” from her husband as a Christmas present. She’s now anticipating the exotic worldwide travel that surely must be in her future. I haven’t read this particular book, but it presumably includes the usual suspects: the Grand Canyon, Mount Everest, the Taj […]

I wish I had a river so long  I would teach my feet to fly I wish I had a river I could skate away on  –          Joni Mitchell. The seemingly ever-changing Sangamon River flowing alongside my property grows, shrinks, shifts, and changes moods like a living being.  Even during the winter, the Sangamon changes with the weather; sometimes flowing, […]