connection to nature
— Three surfers perform a silent New Year's dawn ritual at a California beach while a crowd watches, then celebration breaks out after they ride three perfect waves.
— A child kneels by the Mississippi River, praying and remembering walks with her mother, feeling freedom in the water's flow and memories on its surface.
— A matsutake mushroom narrates its journey from a Tibetan forest where it's harvested by a girl named Tashi, to a New York market, and finally to a new forest home...
— Observers watch cockatoos cross water at dusk, counting them like stars as they journey from hiding places to trees beyond, ending with a rebellious teenager bird.
— During a summer visit to China, a girl who hates bugs learns from her butterfly-loving aunt to see the beauty and purpose in all living things.
— A girl who hates bugs learns to care for butterflies with her aunt in China, discovering that all life has meaning and purpose.
— A child runs barefoot along a muddy riverbank to a flower meadow, picks blooms, wades in the water, then wakes from what might be a dream.
— A child addresses a chickadee through lyrical verse, tracing its movement from dawn song through sunset, celebrating the bird's freedom and its lingering presence in memory.
— A morning meditation in an oak tree by a brook, where the listener discovers that silence is filled with nature's whispered wisdom and calls to action.
— A young poet finds comfort in mathematical and scientific laws as unchanging truths that connect her to the universe and eternity.