We are logger, storekeeper, balsam, hemlock, miner, minister, bear and beaver. Farmer, guide, otter, apple tree.  Skier, doctor, mother, father, bus driver, owl. Hawk, vulture, chickadee. Skinny striped maple, straight-grained ash, lift operator, school teacher, student. We are lichen after rain, blackfly, wood duck, laugh-haunted loon. Brook trout, brown trout, uncle, aunt, peeling birch. Ranger, writer, painter, musician, scientist, waitress, sugar maple, mink, and marten. Coyote baying at December sunset, deer disappearing over scraper bank. Road crew, coach, midwife, fireman, boat-builder. Cattail, pickerel, waterlily, fern. White pine, red pine, wintergreen, raven. Husband, wife, mate, child, litter, pup, fawn, kit, hatch. Alive, here, in the same place at the same time. Part of each other.

Bill McKibben