Questioning is at the heart of who I am and what I do. It’s what makes me a writer and researcher.
I write features, profiles, blog posts, essays, research reports and books. My publications include local, state and national newspapers, magazines, peer-reviewed journals and, yes, books. I write about:
- social innovation & change
- the human-natural world connection
- health/mental health/consciousness/mind
- end of life
- quirky people doing unusual things
In these pages, I combine some of my favorite things: nature and architecture, states of consciousness, imagining and creating a more humane world. My writing on the Essays & Reflections and The Intuitive Sociologist pages is published only on my website. Most of the photos are mine, including headers and footers, unless identified otherwise.
The Intuitive Sociologist blog
Nature Intuition: Insight & Guidance from the Natural World
When I was a child, we lived on a farm and I played in the woods, creeks, ponds and fields—usually alone. The natural world was my companion. When I needed comfort or to make sense of things, sitting by the creek or in a tree helped. Insights came to me a lot. Occasionally I felt enfolded, like being wrapped in a big warm blanket. Whatever this was, it was natural and familiar, but unnamed. What gave me that feeling? Where did those insights come from?
Reflections
Sanctuary
Sanctuary: Connecting Mind, Heart and Spirit through Nature
Spending time in nature can reduce our stress, open us to a broader perspective on life, and prompt gratitude and joy. This mini e-book of nature photos and reflection is meditative, appreciative and a bit mystical. May it bring you pleasure.
Essay
Women’s Rules
A female friend told me, with astonished curiosity: “I’ve never known a woman who’s so unaffected by the rules for women. You don’t even seem to know they exist.”
“What?! There are rules?” I grinned and rolled my eyes, waiving away the observation. But, it did make me wonder. Two decades later, after bumping head-long into a few of those rules, I think she was right. Somehow, I never got the rule book. Or I just never read it.
Book Excerpt
Nature’s Power
Excerpt from Christina’s book, Natural Urges:
A year before I left Houston, a tropical storm dumped two days of unrelenting rain on our city. Hundreds of us walked, biked, or skated in the drenching downpour to lean over the bridges and watch Allen Parkway and Memorial Drive below turn into roiling rivers, submerging cars, vans, buses and delivery trucks under 30 feet of water. An evening newscaster was perplexed by why we were out in the storm. “It’s dangerous,” he fretted. “They should be home where it’s safe.”
Didn’t he know? We were feeding our souls.