This book is not what you think it is. Or rather, it is more than you think it is. Here you will find stories not just about living on a small farm in the Georgia Piedmont but about life on that small farm. Ron Balthazor's close observation of the inhabitants of the land, from earthworms to armadillos, honey bees to black vultures, pea seedlings to soaring oaks, nurtures curiosity and wonder that invite even closer concentration and contemplation. These meditations on the natural world (both cultivated and wild) all, ultimately, point toward connection: between writers ancient and modern, humans and nonhumans, elemental forces and our beating hearts. Balthazor's ideas and stories might be funny or solemn, sour or sweet, but all are keenly crafted and disclose his deep interest in the connections hidden in the histories of words themselves. In the spirit of Henry David Thoreau (he's funnier than you remember) and in the tradition of Aldo Leopold's A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC, these chapters invite you into a year of discovering the holiness suffusing even the humblest parts of creation and reflecting on its implications for ourselves and others of all kinds. This is a book about attention. It is a book about communion.
Mercer University Press, 2026. Paperback, 108 pp.