50+ years in the making………
50+ years seems like a long time to make something happen but I would say maybe that’s what it takes to feel like it is the right time, to know that it is the right time, the right balance, the right focus. That is where I am, it feels like the correct time to share my love for nature in many different forms so that it can be of interest to others.
I will try to explain – sort of a “get to know me” thing.
Obviously I am over 50. I didn’t know I liked to write so much until the last 10 years but if I look back I have actually loved writing it just had to matter to me or another. Having no imagination what-so-ever it was never going to be fiction! Does that make it harder to write, you might ask? Well, in a sense I think it does because you can only write about true happenings or real feelings (there it is, the reason – I would say most people are not totally comfortable with sharing real emotion from their heart until they are older.)
Now, nature – why nature? The first 10 years of my childhood – not a ton of nature – a “townie” if you will. I am the oldest, protected a bit more, liked hanging out with the adults more than the kids (I am still like this…lol) Until the age of 7 our family hopped around some until we needed a house. Still the next 10 years were not really nature filled, but I always was a little into plants, taking hikes, nature photography, things like that. Then when boys came along, I was fairly interested in hearing their hunting and fishing stories, I liked learning something that I wasn’t around a lot – most of the men in my family weren’t really into that, except for one Uncle (you know who you are).
At 22 years old I met and married (at 25) one of those hunters. Again, I liked all the stories and the knowledge, but I didn’t really want to hunt I just liked learning about it. Not to say that I never have hunted, but it wasn’t really me. Flash forward to 2003, I was no longer considered a “townie,” we were moving to the country! (gonna eat a lot of peaches, as the song says)
Wow! Have I learned a lot about nature in 20 years!! It is just amazing- I never knew there was so much to know and see, I absolutely LOVE it!! That is the thing, you can never know too much – you are really never an expert and it just dawned on me one day that I love sharing it with others – everyone appreciates seeing it, hearing about it and even if they are a “townie” they can enjoy it through the writing and photos of another. There is always something to make you happy if you take a walk in the woods but not everyone lives there, not everyone gets the opportunity to witness it so, the next best thing is to hear about it, read about it, look at it through someone else’s lens.
So, this is the right time for me, it feels like the right time to share all that I can about this amazing Midwest land, from ponds to prairies, from Columbine to poison ivy, and from moths to mountain lions. I am so looking forward to having you join me on this adventure, you just never know what you will be able to see – I mean, I don’t even know – it will be unstoppable.