Noticing
I have been moving around the United States a lot these last couple of years.
I spent most my life in Seattle, Washington, USA. I was raised poor by a father who was also raised poor. He had a deep love of the environment and raised me with that same love. We spent most of my young life together in the outdoors.
My first career was as an outdoor educator and recreation ecologist (a scientist who studies the impact of outdoor recreation on the environment). I became intimately familiar with the birds, animals, trees, plants, terrain, and weather of Washington State.
After a long time in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, I moved to Michigan in the Midwest. Everything was different. Some things were familiar—plants and trees I knew from visiting my grandmother as a young one—but mostly I needed to notice and learn about being in a new place, about the weather, the trees and animals, and so on.
I am social a worker now, but being able to notice the world is important. I discovered groundhogs for the first time and realized they are in the same family as my favorite alpine animal, the marmot. This made me feel more connected to my new place.
Now we have moved again and are living in Austin, Texas, USA. I keep noticing everything that is similar and everything that is different. I am learning and discharging about what I might have to change in how I engage with the environment here and what can stay the same. I have already heard mourning doves outside my window.
Austin, Texas, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders in the care of the environment
(Present Time 201, October 2020)