Tag Archives: The Stewardship Way

Where I Hang My Hat

This morning I found myself thinking about how often I refer to the same few places when I write.

New York. Indiana. Florida.

At first, I thought that was just habit.

But the more I paid attention, the more I realized something else was going on.

These are the places where I have spent enough time to notice things.

Not just what is there—but what used to be there.

Not just what something looks like—but how it got that way.

A road that has been rerouted.

A hotel that disappeared.

A stream that doesn’t flow the way it once did.

The more I notice, the more I see that every place has a story.

And most of those stories are shaped by systems—natural systems, economic systems, and human decisions layered over time.

It made me wonder:

Maybe the place where you “hang your hat” is more important than you think.

Not because of where it is.

But because of what it allows you to see.

And maybe the first step in understanding anything…

is simply staying in one place long enough to notice what has changed.

If you want to read more about this CLICK HERE

What I Noticed at Hollyhock Hollow

A couple of weeks ago, Theresa and I took a walk along Rarick Road through Hollyhock Hollow. Nothing unusual was planned—just a walk down Rarick Road, because the trails were still to soft and muddy. But as usual, I noticed a few things.

Winter still had a grip on the landscape. Snow lingered along the sides of the road, tucked into the shaded edges, not quite ready to give way. It was a reminder that the season doesn’t just switch—it loosens, slowly.

But right alongside that lingering cold, something else was happening.

Clusters of snowdrops were blooming—small, white, and easy to overlook if you weren’t paying attention. But there they were, pushing up through the cold ground, quietly signaling that spring is about to bust through.

There weren’t many birds. A few here and there, but nothing like the chorus that will come. Still, the plants are beginning to green up, and that shift is noticeable if you take the time to look.

And the Onesquethaw Creek was moving steadily along, rolling its way toward the Hudson River. It didn’t seem concerned about winter holding on or spring pushing in. It was just doing what it does—moving forward.

As I looked back through the photos later, it struck me that what I was really noticing wasn’t just what I was seeing—but how I was seeing it. The overlap. The transition. The quiet movement from one season to the next.

That led me to experiment with something new—a short video set to a song I created called The Stewardship Way.

Maybe the Stewardship Way isn’t something you arrive at all at once.

Maybe it begins by noticing…
that even when winter still lingers, something new is already on its way.