This is not my first post on the amateur composting project. One of my daily chores is to carry the fruit and vegetable peels, the eggshells and spent coffee grounds to the bit of yard in the back devoted to soil renewal. I call it a chore, but it's an activity that calls me, even in cold or rainy weather - turning the soil with the shovel, patting the kitchen debris into the shallow hole, covering it with earth and leaves, pouring a cup of water on top. With mud on my shoes and strands of hair clinging to my face, I feel cheer and a kind of healing. The transformation is evident within a few days; the matter is being integrated with dirt into rich soil. It's a sensual, deeply grateful bit of time. I'm a part of the trees towering above, and the process beneath my feet. I'm included in the conversation between rain and worms and twigs and leaves, and the birds and squirrels who depend on and contribute to this process in its natural grand scale.

The photo above was taken in Austin, Texas on March 15, 2012.