The knowing, I told myself, is only a vapor of the mind, and yet it can wreck havok with one's sanity.

I'm certainly not opposed to digital technology, whose graces I daily enjoy and rely on in so many ways. But I worry about our virtual blinders.

I try to give myself passionately, totally, to whatever I'm observing, with as much affectionate curiosity as I can muster, as a means of understanding a little better what being human is.

Nature is also great fun. To pretend that nature isn't fun is to miss much of the joy of being alive.

We try to exile ourselves more and more from nature - not always consciously: We build houses; we dismiss nature; nature has to be outside, because we're inside. God forbid something like a cockroach comes inside, or some dust.

We are defined by how we place our attention.

My mother always said I must be part Mongolian because of my lotus-pale complexion and squid-ink black hair.