Awake

“Only that day dawns to which we are awake” said Mr. Thoreau.

And of course, this phrase from the very end of Walden will mean different things to different folks.

I liked it enough that I ask Ann to make a cross-stitch sampler for me in the mid-seventies. Turns out this important era in environmental history marked my own “waking up.”

I liked the phrase enough that, when I began to wonder if I had a third book in me, I titled it “Only That Day Dawns” and was still thinking about an appropriate subtitle when I changed it to “AWAKE: Field Notes of a Blue Ridge Biology Watcher.”

If nothing else, I am enjoying creating the skeleton of the would-be book, upon which to hang various unpublished bits or blog posts that can readily be fleshed out and fit in the appropriate section.

I. Biophilia
II. Waking Up
III. One Place, Understood
IV. What We Leave Behind

I’m thinking 7 to 10 pieces in each section, from 1500 to 4000 words long. I’m setting them up like blog posts, with titles I will “write towards” in snatches as I have time and clarity over the ……….. (Fill in the blank with grains of sand in the hourglass remaining.)

Perhaps more, another day. But I won’t expect my energy to feed off of blog readers input as was the case in the extreme for Slow Road Home and to some degree with What We Hold in Our Hands.