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In the fall of 1797 Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the famed English poet, fell ill in some unspecified way while out walking and when he returned to the farmhouse he was staying in he took some opium to quell the pain. While opium conjures a particularly exotic and hazy kind of stumbling degeneration to the modern…

I would venture to guess that anyone reading this will have, even occasionally, gone for a walk. Even a short one down the street after you park your car counts. The vast majority of the places and paths that are walked are sanctioned, determined, marked and mapped. Whether it is Broadway or 9th street or…

Recently a rare picture of a crow in a strange spread out and prone position was snapped in the Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary in Victoria, British Columbia by nature photographer Tony Austin. Austin described the moment as “a very odd and violent dirt bath.” But only later when looking at the photo did he notice…

I don’t know about you but I don’t keep my ear to the ground much on high end denim lines or so called “fashion drops” where very limited runs of particular pieces are put online to a waiting list and then snatched up and resold at much higher prices than they were bought at. But…

Silently, I move towards destiny. Quietly, you Iñupiat, await my destiny. I can hear you as I move, I can see you as I surface. Together we wait, both know what the other thinks. Although we live in different worlds, we exist for each other. I move towards you Inupiat, because it is my destiny.…

One of the most popular shows on the cable channel Animal Planet is a wildlife documentary series called “River Monsters.” The show is actually great fun and it’s appeal is easy to understand: go to fascinating places and see animals you have never dreamed or heard of. Television watchers love journeys into the unknown, guided…

I’m suspicious of most Rumi quotes that you find floating around the internet because of this article and ones like it with a serious critique that most English translations take out serious content and context from the writing. That said, there is a Rumi quote floating around the internet that says “There are hundreds of…

If a doctor says to you “the procedure is non-invasive” there is usually a sigh of relief. The reason for that is that the word “invade” or “invasive” has an aggressive and hostile sense to it. Whether the invaders are direct (zombies), swarming (insects), tiny (viruses) or massive (aliens from space) there is a definite…

At the Union Square Farmers Market here in New York City you can buy Mugwort for five bucks a bunch. Which is hilarious because it is a weed and growing everywhere. Medians. Parks. Street corners next to lamp posts. I have loads of the plant growing in my backyard. In speaking with an herbalist friend…

I’ve been a book person my whole life but I never was much of a margin scribbler. Sure, I had used highlighters as a kid and underlined things here and there but I was more of a visual recollector. I could sort of see in my mind where on the page things were that I…