Back Where My Story Began

There is a wooden plaque in my parents' house that reads "Home is where your story begins", and is the inspiration for this particular blog post.  As I've discussed before, I made the choice to move back to my hometown for the winter to lend an extra set of hands to my older sister and her family.  One more month here and it will be the longest I've spent in Kansas since I was 18.  I find it to be a bit of a paradox, that for as much as I love my family and my hometown, I've spent so little time here in the past eight years...

One of my mother's birdfeeders in the backyard, which has attracted the attention
of numerous house sparrows, black-capped chickadees, cardinals, and a red-bellied
woodpecker, which have all in turn attracted a Cooper's hawk.

But being home is good thing, it's almost a reminder of me to myself, and it's extremely comforting to know that for all the changes I've undergone since leaving home, the same things that started me on my current path still move me and fill me with joy and purpose.

Enter Dillon Nature Center.

Besides my backyad, this was the place where my natural education began.  Every summer I would go to nature camp here, learn to fish, to identify dragonfly larvae, where to find frogs, and would be allowed to simply play outside all day.  While most of my memories of the place are from the summer months, I recently persuaded a friend of mine to walk the trails again yesterday, in the middle of December.



The Outer Trail on a beautiful December afternoon

The Lower Pond

Typical red berries against a snowy backdrop

Fall colors + semi-frozen pond = December in Kansas

Just some Branta canadensis hanging out on the half-frozen big pond

I like this guy

New favorite photo subject: Ice.

Not bad, huh? It's hard to grow up with that and not want to hang out in nature for a living. 

Yes, the stresses of unemployment and financial insecurity continue to creep into my mind, and yes, I'm in my mid-twenties and unsure of my own footsteps, and yes, I still dream of wild places that I've seen and have yet to see...but it's so, so nice to sit and soak up the feeling of being home, enveloped in that lovely coccoon of family.

And in light of recent events, there's no place else I would want to be.  Since this is my blog and not my family's, I'll only discuss my own ailments, but suffice it to say my family has dealt with/is dealing with a lot the past few weeks, our emotional and physical burdens pushed to their limits, and yet...we seem to be coming out on the other side.

To make a long story short, I debated on whether or not to include this last little section, but I like the idea of this blog as a way to record bits and pieces of my life, and that means including not only the things that I love and the things that inspire me, but also the things that terrify me.  I have once again tested as pre-diabetic, and when factors of family history and personal experiences are considered, I'm not surprised.  In six months I'll have THE test(s) for diabetes, and if those are positive then I'll have more tests to confirm.  My doctor is optimistic since I've never had any issues with weight and I've always been active. I'm bound and determined to reverse my condition - I've done it before - so I'm hopeful that next June you will read a joyous and exuberant post from yours truly.

More importantly, the presents are wrapped, the treats have been made, and holiday cheer and spirit is close to overwhelming!  I'm currently sitting in the sun as it spills in from the kitchen windows, finishing this up before my parents get home and see that I still have not done the dishes :-)

Happy, happy holidays!  May they be very merry and bright!

October Recap Part Four + November: A Missourian Reunion and My Southern Migration

The time has come for me to admit a small truth known to only a few people (but probably guessed by several more), I'm not on great terms with technology.  It's not that I don't like it, heaven knows I love this here three-year old laptop even more than my three-year old phone, and my four-year old camera is like a child to me.  I think technology, in most of its forms, is awesome and amazing and full of possibility.  What I don't like about it is that it sometimes prevents me from interacting with actual humans, who are infinitely more interesting than anything on youtube. Nothing sets me off more than when I'm trying to have a conversation with someone and they're "multi-tasking" on their smartphone.  When such a thing occurs, I often think in my head "PAY ATTENTION TO ME! I'M NOT A ROBOT! I HAVE A HEARTBEAT!" 

So I have a rule.  When I'm around other people, friends and family and often strangers, I have a self-imposed ban on technology - no cruising around the internet (unless I'm wanting to show the other person something), no sending or checking texts, and no phone calls, in fact I try to not even have my phone in clear sight.

This rule had no really negative consequences until recently, when my latest change of scenery brought me to a place where I am nearly constantly surrounded by people.  And while I'm sure my family would not mind if I occasionally checked my email in front of them, or responded to that text I just received, to do so would feel very...rude and unnatural. 

And that's the truth of why I still haven't caught this blog up on the rest of October.  No really good excuse, just me showing yet again that soon I will become a fanatic and disappear one day to live in the woods.

Can't Wait

So, here are the stories of the last week in October and most of November, made short.

My best friend in grad school, hereby known as Favorite, defended her thesis in Columbia at the end of October.  I had told her that if I was within driving distance at the time of her defense, then I would be there.  The six-hour drive from the Driftless down to CoMO is nothing compared to my other road trips from the past six months, so on a chilly day in October, I once again loaded up the car and was off on those familiar roads that carried me towards Missouri.

How do I describe being back in a place that was home for so long? A place where I made more lasting friendships than I had in my entire life?  A place with beautiful parks, amazing restaurants, and an ever-growing local food movement? It was sublime, perfect, and a haze of never-ending happiness and spontaneous hugs.

Kindred Spirit and Favorite

I got to stay with Favorite at the home of another incredible friend and her husband, who will henceforth be known as Kindred Spirit.  Fresh scones every morning, olive oil soap, and a loving golden retriever?  Heaven.

In the end, Favorite successfully defended her thesis, we all celebrated like rockstars at our favorite haunts, and for awhile the Core Four was back together again.  To everyone that I was able to see and catch-up with, and especially to the current and former peeps of 212 and Kindred Spirit: Thanks for being so awesome.

The Core Four, who are responsible for my grad school survival

After I returned to the Driftless from Missouri, it hit me that I had only a week left before it was time to depart.  The career that I've chosen is not always the most stable, and I've accepted that temporary and seasonal work is going to be it for awhile.  Permanency is something that seems to elude me, and in my heart of hearts, I like it that way and I'm often relieved when I am released back into the wild unknown. 

My gig in the Driftless was six months, and then I packed up my car and turned south, following the V's of geese headed that general direction as well.  Over seven hundred miles later, I arrived on my parents' doorstep, ready to take on my next challenge: Auntie.  And all the diaper changes, toy cars, and chasing that comes with it.  In essence, I'm trading one set of wildlife for a whole new set of wild creatures :-)

Apart of nanny-ing duties, I've spent November getting more application packets together, including writing the much-feared "teaching philosophy" in the hopes I'll one day do this education thing on a more regular basis.  I have a list of parks and nature centers I intend to volunteer at, once the holidays are over and life calm down a bit.  I've also begun working on various projects I've left neglected since May: getting my thesis into a "publishable unit," reading all those environmental anthropology books I have sitting in a box, and one or two other manuscripts I'm convinced can find a home in one journal or another. 

While I still daydream of returning to the Driftless in the spring, and sometimes fantasize about parks in the west I'd love to end up at, for the time being I'm enjoying being home while I do said daydreaming.  I love the sense of possibility, the sense that I really could go anywhere.  I've taken a strange path, at least it seems that way to non-interpretive environmental education fanactic evolutionary anthropologists I meet along the way.  But if it means getting to do what I love, and lead a lifestyle that I love, then I'm willing to be a little unorthodox.  I can't imagine any other path I could be on.