NEW BOOK: PLANT BASED

This time last year, I made a commitment. In the Autumn 2025 newsletter, there’s a short paragraph naming my intention to write a book to share in 2026. Well, here we are! Plant Based: Stepping Into Presence in the Garden is getting ready for its debut.

Plant Based is a self-published collection of mini essays inspired by the outdoors—the ordinary extraordinary—surrounding my home. Compiled in four chapters following the seasons, the 31 reflections range from everyday observations of insects and raindrops to experiences of being threatened by wildfire and a river nearing flood stage. Most are quiet, meditative pieces, without being “meditations.”

My purpose in making this offering is to share the calm and beauty I have the privilege of enjoying where I live and to extend an invitation to take a pause and sit in presence together.

Excerpt from Preface: In This Moment

This is the land I now belong to. It does not belong to me. It is embedded in my heart, my understanding of self and life. It teaches me quietly about dreams, hopes, planting seeds, nurturing, loving and losing, dealing with change, and just sitting—in quiet moments—breathing and sensing the leaves in the trees, the birds and insects, my cat on the lawn, the deck boards (once trees themselves) beneath my body, the water, the breeze. All in one moment sharing one world. A small one. A vast one. To be cared for. The home that provides for us. For how long?

My hope with this book is: for a little bit longer. If we can care a little more to bring health to the parts not too far gone. Some are already falling away, unable to sustain, the damage done. But staying present, we honor what still IS. In planting and tending, we hope for the future. In mourning what dies, we learn from the past. In stillness and reflection, we are awake in the moment, you and I, together on the page. Now.

I’m in the process of reviewing proofs and ordering an initial print run, with the intent to offer the book for sale by November. Plant Based begins at the year’s end, so that is when I’d like to put it into readers’ hands. It will be distributed in print only. There is no e-book planned.

In the meantime, since the summer sun is shining for a few more hours, I’m posting another excerpt—this one about summer and seeds—on my website here.

Watch my LinkedIn for when Plant Based becomes available. I appreciate your interest and support.