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Lake Trout Waits – Dec. 2, 2022

“When the female swam away and resumed her solitary lake wandering, she left behind thousands of fertile eggs, fallen from her body into crevices between the cobbles. It’s a kind of faith this shining fish practices, returning, perhaps from a vast distance, to plant life in the place where she came to life. It’s faith […]

Woodchuck Waits – Dec. 1, 2022

“Deep in his burrow he’s safe from other mouths. It’s his own hunger he has to escape. Winter has wiped bare his vegetarian table. He would starve if he stayed awake. Asleep—a sleep so deep his heart barely beats and his body cools to nearly the temperature of ice—he expends almost no energy. Only at […]

Honey Bees Wait – Nov. 30, 2022

“If they’re here—all females in a winter hive—they’re clustered together inside (an oak tree), queen at the heart of their sisterhood. The fine, transparent wings they beat hard in summer’s heat—a constant buzzing fan to keep the hive from cooking—they hold, now, folded and still. The tiny muscles to which those wings are attached shiver. […]

Chickadee Waits – Nov. 29, 2022

“A chickadee on a winter night burns through all the calories it ate during the day. Before dawn, as soon as there’s light enough to see, the chickadee flutters out, famished, its tiny brain intent on seeds. Tiny, its brain, but bigger now, in Advent, than in spring… Inside that black skullcap his hippocampus is […]