nature

Mary Oliver and her dog, Perry. Photograph by Rachel Brown.

Joy Before Death: Following the Path of Mary Oliver

By Stephen Prothero | January 18, 2019

From Buddhism to science to the end of life.

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Born Again Rural

By Meera Subramanian | August 29, 2011

How to get found in the woods.

Richard Smith as Henry David Thoreau. Photograph by Maria Lewis.

Becoming Thoreau

By Beatrice Marovich | October 25, 2010

A living historian’s peculiar communion at Walden Pond.

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When Gods Disappear

By Meera Subramanian | September 5, 2009

The brothers were racing for the sun. What brothers don’t create such fantastic games of competition and daring, even when they are gods? Especially if they are gods. Jatayu and…

Killing the Buddha

Thanks, Blue Mountain Center!

By KtBniks | August 28, 2009
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Flood

By Alex Rose | July 23, 2009

An illicit afternoon hike on a sunny day. What could go wrong? A short story from KtB’s new contributing editor.

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Transient Vapors

By Nathan Schneider | June 27, 2009

When I got home, when I got the camera, when I jumped out onto the fire escape to take a picture, it looked like this. This is all that was…

All photos by Katherine Wright.

Why We Hunt

By Scott Korb | June 15, 2009

Lost in the crosshairs, the gun was a little too big and the hunter a little too small.

Noemi Vagus, an Ashaninka shaman, standing in front of an Ayahuasca vine in the Peruvian Amazon

Meeting the Madre

By Alexander Zaitchik | May 18, 2009

A night high on ayahuasca with the Ashaninka of the Peruvian Amazon.

Photo by James Johnston

Church of the Holy Firs

By Meera Subramanian | August 4, 2008

A beet seed. A tiny world. A sphere of possibilities.

A bushel and a peck.

Apples

By Bia Lowe | October 11, 2002

Chew on this. How do we keep our faith when the sun, like love, abandons us?

"And there appeared to them tongues as of fire..." The Acts of the Apostles 2:3

Fire from Heaven

By Scott Carlson | October 10, 2002

Burn, baby, burn. Two new books explore the holiness of flames.

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Entrance Wound

By Charles Bowden | August 1, 2002

We believe in cells and protoplasm and sex, and stench and dirt and slime
and screams in the night.

The Origin of the World Gustave Coubert, 1866 (detail)

Raptures

By Bia Lowe | June 14, 2002

Art that redeems the world appears at first ugly. But look. Look again.

Stars

Seeing Things

By Bia Lowe | November 28, 2001

Love incites our imaginations, the sky demands our projections, and yet we’re still blind. Can desire alone make us see?