By Marguerite Jill Dye Climbing a tree is a path to self-discovery. Building a woodland fort is an exercise in creativity. Stepping across a babbling brook develops confidence and brings joy. Our most treasured childhood memories are often from outdoor adventures. While 71 percent of adults played outside as kids, only 21 percent of America’s…

By Marguerite Jill Dye Thank heavens we live in Vermont, where our connection to nature is ever tangible. However, not all of our countrymen and women benefit from the great out-of-doors. Did you know that the average American spends 93 percent of his or her time indoors—87 percent in buildings and 6 percent in vehicles,…

Painting by Marguerite Jill Dye by Marguerite Jill Dye Vermonters and fellow nature lovers know the power our magnificent mountains, forests, and woods have on our wellbeing. If I hadn’t experienced nature’s healing effect myself, I may not have understood the forest’s curative energies on the human immune system. Years ago, after travels in Turkey…

By Marguerite Jill Dye The other night, I couldn’t sleep. I was worrying and my husband was snoring. I crept downstairs and caught Stephen Colbert’s interview with Sean Penn. His face was drawn and his hair was disheveled. He’d taken an Ambien after a red-eye flight and looked like an exhausted, absent-minded professor. As he…

By Marguerite Jill Dye Since beginning to write this weekly column I’ve paid keen attention to current events. I try to write about relevant themes with substance, inspiration, and integrity. I feel a sense of responsibility and have tried to keep up and stay aware through MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post,…

By Marguerite Jill Dye You’d think I’d have learned to be more discerning about who can be trusted and who cannot, but I realized it’s a continuing theme that pops up in daily life. My experience began 50 years ago at the American College of Monaco. Adam McQueen Vandenberg stole my heart. He was a race…

By Marguerite Jill Dye Have you ever felt one with the universe, while gazing in awe at the twinkling stars? Have you communed with the trees and birds while hiking in the forests and woods? Have you felt inspired and empowered high up on a mountain you’ve climbed? Feeling connected to the natural world is…

By Marguerite Jill Dye “Be a nuisance where it counts. Do your part to inform and stimulate the public to join your action. Be depressed, discouraged, and disappointed at failure and the disheartening effects of ignorance, greed, corruption and bad politics – but never give up,” said Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890-1998) must be…

By Marguerite Jill Dye How have we come to this point, America, that students who cowered in closets and classrooms, beside murdered classmates and coaches, must lead the charge to bring sense to our laws? How have we come to be represented by leaders who solely represent the NRA? How have we sunk so low…

By Marguerite Jill Dye “Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over,” British journalist Dan Hodges tweeted when the gun debate ended after the Sandy Hook massacre where 20 elementary school children were gunned down. We have had 239 school mass shootings since Sandy Hook, and I ask our so- called leaders: “What…

By Marguerite Jill Dye “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts . . . there is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter,” wrote Rachel Carson. It’s hard…

By Marguerite Jill Dye On Martin Luther King Day, while investigating the roots of segregation in America, I stumbled upon an article in The Atlantic that shocked even my husband, who grew up in segregated North Carolina. “Segregation Had to Be Invented” by Alana Semuels describes what occurred between the Civil War’s end and the…

By Marguerite Jill Dye One day last August I was stupefied when words spilled from my pen without pause or thought, as fast as I could write them down. When I reread what I’d written, I was confused and afraid that such words had poured out. I could only imagine they must have come from…

By Marguerite Jill Dye We are beginning to recognize the immense power of Facebook as a forum, and vehicle of propaganda and fake news since learning about Russia’s cyberwarfare and meddling in the U.S. election. Through Russian Facebook and Instagram accounts, 80 million political posts by fictitious organizations were sent to 23 million American voters…

By Marguerite Jill Dye The past year has been an exercise in striving for balance in a turbulent sea. The wear and tear has been quite extreme, often exhausting and terribly frustrating. Many people, including me, have fought depression and lacked motivation. How is it possible, in such tumultuous times, to stay above water and sustain…