Orion Magazine - https://orionmagazine.org/category/departments/lay-of-the-land/ America's Finest Environmental Magazine Thu, 08 Jun 2023 14:03:30 +0000 en-US hourly 1 195321810 Daisy Parrotfish https://orionmagazine.org/article/daisy-parrotfish/ Thu, 08 Jun 2023 14:03:30 +0000 https://orionmagazine.org/?post_type=article&p=263183 SOMEWHERE IN THE reefy waters of the Indo-Pacific, a daisy parrotfish (Chlorurus sordidus) is feasting on coral. She crunches up the hard knobs of calcium carbonate with her tough beaklike teeth, ...

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]]> 263183 The Extraordinary Disorder of Obsidian https://orionmagazine.org/article/extraordinary-disorder-obsidian/ https://orionmagazine.org/article/extraordinary-disorder-obsidian/#comments Thu, 10 Mar 2022 09:00:56 +0000 https://orionmagazine.org/?post_type=article&p=240408 RUNNING SOUTH of the turquoise eye of Mono Lake just east of the Sierra’s steep escarpment are hills that once hissed and  groaned, gushed fountains of pumice and ash and sticky ...

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]]> https://orionmagazine.org/article/extraordinary-disorder-obsidian/feed/ 1 240408 At the Gate https://orionmagazine.org/article/at-the-gate/ https://orionmagazine.org/article/at-the-gate/#comments Tue, 18 Jan 2022 22:47:57 +0000 https://orionmagazine.org/?post_type=article&p=236909 Wheelchairs in wild spaces shouldn’t be an anomaly some thirty years since the Americans with Disabilities Act. ...

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]]> https://orionmagazine.org/article/at-the-gate/feed/ 11 236909 Adaptive Joy https://orionmagazine.org/article/adaptive-joy/ https://orionmagazine.org/article/adaptive-joy/#comments Sun, 19 Dec 2021 17:04:02 +0000 https://orionmagazine.org/?post_type=article&p=236907 Grief lives in the body; crip grief lives in the crip body. And I am working out my crip grief by moving in a crip way on this land, on this trike. ...

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]]> https://orionmagazine.org/article/adaptive-joy/feed/ 3 236907 A Drinkable Beauty https://orionmagazine.org/article/a-drinkable-beauty/ https://orionmagazine.org/article/a-drinkable-beauty/#comments Sun, 19 Dec 2021 16:57:22 +0000 https://orionmagazine.org/?post_type=article&p=236697 MY HOMETOWN of Bellingham, Washington, is a last corner of the continental United States, a final chew of land before the long drink of the Pacific. We’re bound to the west by ...

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]]> https://orionmagazine.org/article/a-drinkable-beauty/feed/ 2 236697 Writing the Pandemic Slant https://orionmagazine.org/article/writing-the-pandemic-slant/ https://orionmagazine.org/article/writing-the-pandemic-slant/#comments Sat, 04 Dec 2021 19:52:44 +0000 https://orionmagazine.org/?post_type=article&p=236698 I had lost the writer part of me who could pull meaning, maybe even art, up out of events and float it over the words. I stopped trying. ...

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]]> https://orionmagazine.org/article/writing-the-pandemic-slant/feed/ 1 236698 Martian Dreams https://orionmagazine.org/article/martian-dreams/ https://orionmagazine.org/article/martian-dreams/#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2021 18:07:23 +0000 https://orionmagazine.org/?post_type=article&p=224771 Underlying these exploratory aims were grander dreams of conquest, I found—no longer just fanciful speculation. ...

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]]> https://orionmagazine.org/article/martian-dreams/feed/ 5 224771 Broken Badlands https://orionmagazine.org/article/broken-badlands/ https://orionmagazine.org/article/broken-badlands/#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2021 18:06:28 +0000 https://orionmagazine.org/?post_type=article&p=224770 I WHEN WE ARE SMALL and close to the earth, there is more landscape than time. It’s only later that we forget. Only later that we begin to play pretend. I was ...

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]]> https://orionmagazine.org/article/broken-badlands/feed/ 7 224770 A Dill in Every Soup https://orionmagazine.org/article/a-dill-in-every-soup/ https://orionmagazine.org/article/a-dill-in-every-soup/#comments Wed, 02 Jun 2021 19:02:55 +0000 https://orionmagazine.org/?post_type=article&p=213811 I love to look at dill. I love to handle it, chop it. It’s an elegant shape. Its featheriness is touchable; I brush it on my cheeks when no one is looking. ...

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]]> https://orionmagazine.org/article/a-dill-in-every-soup/feed/ 6 213811 Cicadas Still Sing https://orionmagazine.org/article/cicadas-still-sing/ https://orionmagazine.org/article/cicadas-still-sing/#comments Wed, 02 Jun 2021 18:44:29 +0000 https://orionmagazine.org/?post_type=article&p=213810 IN LATE JUNE, the thrum of annual cicadas, or chicharras, as we call them here in San Antonio, becomes the dominant sound of summer. The air percolates with percussion as males buckle ...

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