A Barred Owl

by Laura Parker Roerden Several nights this week I have lain in bed listening to the call and response of three barred owls outlining each cardinal direction—save for the south— which is oddly missing in the chorus, as if the baritones had boarded a bus for Times Square for some dancing and Christmas lights, whileContinue reading “A Barred Owl”

Completing the Circuit

by Laura Parker Roerden (June 6, 2017) If you’re a certain age, you might remember those strobe disco lights from the 70s and how they not only slowed down action, but captured and unnaturally suspended a singular moment. I can still see my college roommate’s expression while she danced at the disco we went to inContinue reading “Completing the Circuit”

They’re Here!

by Laura Parker Roerden (Sept. 26, 2015) Last night we drove west into a setting sun through rolling pasture-land to pick up our lambs in Scotland. Connecticut, that is. Just take a left at the Cliffs of Dover, I expected the GPS to instruct. The beautiful sheep farms and UK-influenced place names everywhere helped to create a sense of removalContinue reading “They’re Here!”

For the Love of Work

by Laura Parker Roerden Work is love made visible. – Kahil Gibran   My father chose to be a farmer. By doing so, he was following in his own father’s footsteps and making good use of 62-acres of established farmland. But it was what some might call a cynical decision. You see, my dad hadContinue reading “For the Love of Work”

Stranger Things

November 22, 2013 By Laura Parker Roerden I look up and silhouetted in the dusky light is someone wearing a stripped rugby style scarf and a hooded black robe. He is carrying a white bird. I am making supper in the farmhouse, the sounds of sizzling competing with thwaps of driving rain hitting the hardContinue reading “Stranger Things”

Want to Help Address the Many Environmental Problems Facing Us?

Are you worried about the environmental challenges facing us: from global warming to plastic pollution to habitat loss to overfishing? We are too. The next generation is inheriting an ocean that is very different from the one we did. Time and again, Ocean Matters youth show us that there is hope—for our young people andContinue reading “Want to Help Address the Many Environmental Problems Facing Us?”

Find Something Beautiful

by Laura Parker Roerden Find something beautiful and let it inform your soul. Let it wash over you like a baptism. Let it ask more of you than you currently give. What is it that moves you to rise? Make an altar of it; catch it in the clasped palms of your heart like aContinue reading “Find Something Beautiful”

The Ways of Water

by Laura Parker Roerden As a child, we had a hand pump over an artesian well by a white, double-decker chicken barn. It was the only water for hundreds of birds growing on that land. The pump required several hard thrusts of the handle to raise the water like spirit, to the surface. Then eachContinue reading “The Ways of Water”

Scholarship Opportunity: Do You Know a Florida Teen Who Wants to Make a Splash for the Ocean?

Calling all creative Florida teens who want to make a splash on behalf of the world’s oceans! Ocean Matters is proud to announce a partnership with the prestigious Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs, which is generously providing one full scholarship ($3,500 value) to an Ocean Awareness Contest applicant from Florida to participate in our OceanContinue reading “Scholarship Opportunity: Do You Know a Florida Teen Who Wants to Make a Splash for the Ocean?”

A Coming Hurricane

by Laura Parker Roerden I read today that a flock of seagulls was once trapped in the eye of a hurricane. The birds had sought refuge in the false calm of fair skies, but didn’t realize they now flew through a tunnel of destruction, all ways out blocked by certain devastation. Birds that sense plummetingContinue reading “A Coming Hurricane”

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