“Immersing myself in the natural world of my own backyard...is the way I cope with whatever I think I cannot bear. I’m not trying to hide from the truth but to balance it, to remind myself that there are other truths too. I need to remember that the earth, fragile as it is, remains heart-breakingly beautiful.”
Margaret Renkl is an author and contributing opinion writer to the New York Times. Her work focuses on the intersections of human life and the natural world. See more of her work for the NYT here, or learn about her new book, "The Weedy Garden" at margaretrenkl.com.