Northing
- It's fall, and the birds are getting restless; Dillard keeps finding feathers everywhere.
- Seeing the birds migrating south, she thinks that she would like to go north. The Arctic explorers she admires called their progress toward the pole "northing."
- After a year surrounded by the excess of nature that is the South, the idea of going north, simplifying, and paring herself down sounds pretty good. She imagines just grabbing her winter coat and setting off.
- Instead, she decides to accept from the universe the gift of southing; she'll wait at Tinker Creek for the North to melt and flow downstream.
- Monarch butterflies are getting restless, too, and over the course of five days, she watches monarchs migrate.
- Because monarchs feed on bitter milkweed, entomologists assumed they didn't taste very good to predators, until one Dr. Urquhart ate a few. Dillard read his report, in which he said they were as flavorless as dried toast.
- She has a dream that she discovers a prayer tunnel in her childhood home. Only Eskimos can survive the tunnel, because it's so cold and dark.
- Upon waking, she considers the words of Abba Moses, an ancient Egyptian desert hermit, who said, "Go and sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything."
- The first frost hits, and she realizes that if she got lost in the mountains now, she'd freeze to death before anyone could find her.
- Dillard ponders the death of self and realizes it's all about waiting quietly until your brain stops chattering; when she calms herself and waits, she always gets what she needs.
- She mentions how ancient Israeli priests used to wave sacrifices in the air above the altar, raising the offering to God in thanksgiving. It was called a "wave offering."
- The wind at Tinker Creek has served as a knife to pare her down; no northing necessary. It has waved her as an offering, and she gives thanks.