I just posted something similar on the Nature Writers page... but reading a lot of Annie Dillard, Gretel Ehrlich, Barry Lopez, and a new favorite, David James Duncan, lately...all people who seem to really get the natural world and how we connect to it in a physical way, and spiritually, too. Finishing David James Duncan, River Teeth, this week...so glad to have found him. A friend of my husband's first recommended the River Why, though I've been enjoying his shorter stories and essays. His voice is so natural, so believable, I feel like I'm walking along with him. He's also teaching me that it's ok not to try to make all aspects of nature beautiful- because they aren't- and yet still find those moments of exquisite beauty and transcendence, sometimes all the more poignant by contrast with the immediacy of the environment. I would love to meet any one of these incredible writers one day...and actually did meet Barry Lopez after a Seattle Arts and Lectures talk about Home Ground last fall. I have to admit, I didn't know where to begin to engage, especially in a cocktail like setting. Maybe the best opportunity would be to sit down over coffee- an even less likely scenario. So with that, I'll try to be a bit more prepared for the next unexpected eventuality...what would be the questions to ask, if you only had a moment....