Wildlands!

Today I met up with my Wildlands Studies program group in Pucon, Chile. It has been raining the past two days, but the weather is looking up for the start of our big adventure! Tomorrow we are going to the Cani Nature Reserve about 30 minutes out of town and into the mountains! We will be hiking in and spending eight nights in the old growth Araucaria (monkey puzzle tree) forests! I am so excited. I love all of you and will post some pictures hopefully next time I blog... :)

Surprise.. it's summer.

Chile is hot. And beautiful! I have been here for a week now and taken a siesta almost every day.. My body was definitely not ready to be thrown into summer. I have been staying at a woman's house at the base of Volcan Villarrica just outside of Pucon, where my study program starts in a couple days. Lots of raspberry and strawberry harvesting and eating! Also, lots of weeding. These chores are making me a bit homesick.. I'm missing everyone and looking forward to hiking through the gorgeous mountains soon. I think it will be good for me to get moving again. Not too much exciting news to report at this point.. Sending my love to each and every one of you! Thanks for reading. Will update again when possible...!  

The journey begins.

In twenty minutes my mom and sister are driving me to the airport to begin my voyage to Chile! I don't have too many words at the moment. My emotions are a whirlwind of excitement and nervousness. Luckily I know to keep my head up, think positive thoughts, and smile and good things are bound to come my way! I will be sure to update you all when I have internet access (probably every 2-3 weeks on average). Thank you everyone for being inspiring and encouraging figures in my life. You will be thought of and missed while I am traveling. Here's to a grand adventure!

  

Adiós Pocatello!

A Cornucopia of Thanks.

It has been far too long since I have written here. Life continues to be a whirlwind of new experiences and unexpected obstacles and new friendships and joyful moments. I continue to think of how thankful I am to be alive every new day. It seems clearly appropriate to blog today as yesterday was the Thanksgiving Holiday. Although this holiday strangely celebrates the arrival of new settlers and, thus, the takeover the native people's land, I think it is an important day to reflect on our history and despite our bloody past be thankful for all that we are lucky to have today. Today, I have health, happiness, and my family to share it with. And I am ever so grateful.

This has been a week full of moments and people to be thankful for. On Monday, I was thankful for clean drinking water after watching Gasland, the shocking and infuriating documentary about the free for all nonsense that is fracking and its frightening effects upon groundwater across the country, on Sunday night. If you're looking for an eye opening depressing movie to dampen the holiday spirits, check it out. Tuesday, I was thankful for all of the wonderful friends in my life! Especially Jenna and Eric for listening to me and helping me through some hard moments with a smile, some advice, and a hug. Tuesday evening I was thankful for all of my friends (and my mom and sister!) that came over for our big potluck. It was so wonderful to see everyone in our humble home! Dancing in the kitchen (and Ali's bedroom!), making crepes at midnight, and smiling nonstop all the while made for one of the best nights of the quarter!

The past three days, I have been more than thankful to have my family staying with me at my house. It has been so great to have their warm hearts and friendly faces keeping the house full of life while the roomies are away with their families for Turkey Day.

My dad, mom, and sister bravely arrived Tuesday night after a sixteen hour drive of pass closing, backtracking, and rerouting.. oi! Wednesday, we went out to breakfast at Old Town Cafe. I think we were all thankful for the delicious food and coffee complete with a view of the bay! Then we went on a campus tour. It was awesome to show them the Arboretum and the Outback, my two favorite places on campus, plus everything in between! Thursday, Ariel and I went to Mount Baker Ski Area for a blustery shred sesh. We skied all day and at times were fighting hard to not fall over in the high winds! They eventually closed chair 8 and 6 (not before we got to them!) and we got a bunch of great laps in on 4 and especially 5. I was so happy to be able to share the beauty of the Baker with my wonderful badass sister. Sonja and Lee (my aunt and her fiancee) arrived yesterday afternoon. That evening, the whole gang went to a lovely, expensive, classy dinner at The Oyster Bar on Chuckanut. The rainy drive was complete with jazz music and great company.


Today we were blessed with stunning rays of sunshine and we took advantage of it! After french toast prepared lovingly by mom and Sonja, we went for a great walk around Lake Padden. We spent a lot of time observing the plethora of waterfowl that were also basking in the beautiful sun. I used my new binoculars to watch Mallards kick their orange feet and fight over the prettiest duck. ;) We also got see a bunch of American Coots diving for fish and Double Crested Cormorants flying low over the wavy water. We also saw what I think were several Buffleheads swimming amongst the sea Coots. I am thankful to have beautiful places for these birds to live right in my backyard! We then went to Boulevard park to get some coffee and chat before heading to Locust Beach. Ariel and I climbed in the net, swung on some ropes, and successfully collected an entire Haggen shopping bag (procured from a tree) full of trash. Sweet. I am so happy to have my family here!

Tomorrow, we are making a full fledged Chilean feast in honor of my upcoming travels! Tonight will bring us Phad Thai, beer, guitar lessons, and reading. I hope all of your holiday endeavors have been as beautiful and humbling as mine. Thanks to my family for making the long trek from Pocatello and Eugene to spend time with me. Here's to a happy weekend!

Thanks for reading!

Here's to the one...

I just want to grow food and climb mountains.

These problems we face are like fountains.

They just keep flowing... flowing.

And we, our souls, have slowly ceased growing.

We are sick.
We are tired.
We are sad.
Me? I'm also mad.
This is not a world I am always proud of.


All this beauty, all this life.
Is too often overshadowed by my strife.


Environmental degradation, escalation, deforestation, destruction, construction...


Boxing ourselves into a concrete jungle, rapidly.
No one moves about happily.


We want to learn.
We want to discover.
We want to wonder.


I want to lay down under a soot black blanket and SEE the stars.
I want to HEAR the big brown bird cry in search of his prey between granite spires.
I want to SMELL the fresh, sweet spring rain kissing the petals of new buds.
I want to stand on the coast of the vast sea and FEEL the cold, hard wind.
I want to race through fields of white brilliance and TASTE each glistening crystal on my warm tongue.


We all seek this peace fundamental to the human existence within ourselves.
We all set out to strike a sense of balance in our lives...
So here's to the one who strives...

To paint a picture within analogous to that which they wish to view around them.

Here's to the one.

Thanks for reading.


LivE.

A tribute to life.

Dear friends,

Yesterday my pet Betta, Bonnie, passed away silently in her glass jar. I feel very sad for her death, but also happy that she spent those few short months swimming around on my desk. Her company always made me smile. I post this poem in honor of her:

Hello, sun in my face.

Hello, you who make the morning

and spread it over the fields 

and into the faces of the tulips

and the nodding morning glories,

and into the windows of, even, the 

miserable and the crotchety--

best preacher that ever was,

dear star, that just happens 

to be where you are in the universe

to keep us from ever-darkness,

to ease us with warm touching,

to hold us in the great hands of light--

good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day

in happiness, in kindness.

-Mary Oliver-

LivE.

Environmental Education and death.

Hello friends,

I hope your week is going swell and you are enjoying the crisp fall days upon us. Yesterday in my Environmental Education course, we were lucky to have the opportunity to venture into The Arboretum and The Outback, the protected forest and 5-acre garden on campus respectively. While sitting in the outdoor classroom and watching sunlight catch the yellow maple leaves slowly drifting to the forest floor, we discussed the blurring lines between technology and animals in addition to a similar set of blurred lines between animals and humans.

With the onset of refined fields of biological study including microbiology, cell biology, and the like has come an onset of confusion between advancing technologies and the native inhabitants of our earth. GMOs are the prime example of this phenomena. This is not to say that all GMO research or practice is "bad" because much good has come from genetic research especially with regard to the medical field. However, I draw the line at GMO crops and other important plants especially when large companies (*cough*Monsanto*cough*) force their GMO seeds onto our farmland and into developing countries. Also, the lines between humans and animals have been blurred primarily by human-animal hybridization. In short, when we cannot distinguish between animal and machine or between human and animal, I believe we have a problem.

On the flip side, I think that the blurring between humans and animals has the potential to do a lot of good for our world and our society. Raising pets as a child teaches about respect, care, and love toward our fellow animals. Historically, animals are often sacred specifically to many Native American Indian tribes. Blessings prior to feasting, the discovering of spirit animals, as well as animal worship are evident in many cultures. I think that as we face decreasing biodiversity and ecosystem degradation a rekindling of the fire between us and every other living animal could potentially instill stewardship and a desire to protect, preserve, and love the environment and all of its inhabitants.

One of my good friends pointed out the fact that today, we bury our bodies in coffins as if to separate our remains from the rest of the earth. It seems to me that this observation is indicative of the fact that we have simply forgotten that death is part of life. We are no longer raised on farms, we are raised in tall buildings in stifling cities. Here, there is no sense of the cycle of life and death. You do not see the chicken slaughtered before you eat it and you do not grow lettuce on land you care for. We fear death. We do all we can to avoid by way of prescription drugs and advanced medical treatments. And I am not convinced our quality of life has improved with this phenomenon.

On this note, I would like to share a Mary Oliver poem with you. Thanks for reading and I hope this is some food for thought.

When Death Comes

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps his purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering;
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

~ Mary Oliver ~

LivE.