Author Archives: Heather
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"If you got a field that don’t yield": writer’s block and the language of community
Isa Catto Shaw’s show at the Doug Casebeer, with whom she shared the show, each spoke movingly about the impetus behind their individual efforts. Knowing that she had been working like a madman for several months, I was glad (and … Continue reading
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Tagged community, Isa Catto Shaw, Jessica Hobby Catto, Rainer Maria Rilke, Wendell Berry, writing
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Meat and flourishment: carnivorocity, take three
The Color of Atmosphere: One Doctor’s Journey In and Out of Medicine. After describing a flummoxing patient she had as a second-year medical student, Kozel said, “[I] devoured the answers without asking the right questions.” Of course, if you’re obsessive … Continue reading
Posted in Food
Tagged bison, climate change, guns, Joel Salatin, meat, Polyface Farm, prophets, Thunder Heart Bison, vegetarianism
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Shooting holes in the Constitution: some thoughts on guns and violence
Recently, like many Americans, I’ve been thinking about the issue of guns in civil society. The tragic shooting in Tucson certainly focused attention on the topic, as did a story on National Public Radio that identified the United States as … Continue reading
The rising light
Although it’s sometimes hard to tell, we’re in the season of rising light. Some of us have a confused relationship with this time of year. The prevailing story, at least in Western culture, has a particular purchase on anyone who’s … Continue reading
Posted in Nature
Tagged dreaming, light, Marilynne Robinson, Robert Alter, tohu-bohu, weather
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Singing in the dark
The relentless sunshine of the current weather here in Austin might make those in the Midwest or on the East Coast sigh with envy. A photo on the front page of Tuesday’s New York Times shows an Ohio man ineffectually … Continue reading
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Tagged Advent, chupacabra, darkness, Joy Howard, Lent, tohu-bohu, Wendell Berry
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Hosts, guests, and strangers: thoughts on hospitality
The season of hospitality is upon us, with all its pleasures and burdens. Known in the Christian tradition as Advent, it focuses on the need for preparation, both for the very intimate event of a baby’s birth and for the … Continue reading
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Tagged Advent, Dai Due, deer, hospitality, land ownership, Madroño Ranch, private property, Texas Hill Country
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Faith, bureaucracy, and sheep: thoughts on changing one’s mind
In my last post, I decided to postpone my public ululations over the recent elections. As I’ve spent the last week or so in an apparently endless struggle to get the Madroño Ranch bison label approved by the Texas Department … Continue reading
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Tagged Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, meat, Moral Majority, regulation, religion, Tea Party
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“Sit. Stay. Stay! I said STAY, dammit!”
Despite the temptation to give myself over to ululations for the natural world in light of the recent midterm elections, I will be brave and strong. In fact, I’ll look to our dogs for clues about how to move ahead … Continue reading
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Tagged aoudad, armadillos, bison, Colorado, dogs, Madroño Ranch, porcupines, walking
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Barbers, bison meat, and the invisible hand
I was back in my shiny new persona as salesperson last week, driving out to all the dude ranches around Bandera in hopes of scaring up a market for the hundreds and hundreds of pounds of bison meat we will … Continue reading
Posted in Food
Tagged Adam Gopnik, Adam Smith, bison, community, economics, The New Yorker, Wendell Berry
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Of mothers and mountains
I’ve just introduced myself to the pleasures of Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There. Called the father of wildlife conservation in the United States, Leopold heard in the revving of the great American economic and … Continue reading
Posted in Nature
Tagged Aldo Leopold, Colorado, Henry David Thoreau, Isa Catto Shaw, Jessica Hobby Catto, John Catto, mountains, salvation, wildness, wolves
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