Some Thoughts on Where We Live

…and a conversation with Paul Hawken about his new book

 What the world deserves is to know where we live…

and then to know who we live with.

—Paul Hawken

I was watching my step as I headed down our long driveway the other day. We’re now fully into what we fondly refer to as “mud season,” so I didn’t see what was sitting on the fencepost as I approached. It was only when it startled off that I realized how close I had come to it, without even noticing its presence.

A hawk! As it sailed away directly in front of me and made its way up to a more comfortable distance in a tree, I had another realization. That wasn’t just any hawk, it was the hawk that’s been appearing in and around here for years. Don’t ask me how I know that, I just know. We’ve seen it over and over, and visitors have commented on seeing it as they drive up to the house. It occurred to me that my first impulse was to think of it simply as a specimen of interest that I happened to encounter. But some sudden awareness or opening in my too human of a heart realized— it’s actual…