I’d love to keep a journal about how every plant affects me. I’d write about lamb’s ear and lavender, ferns and foxglove, mushrooms and clovers, grasses tall and short, and even my potted flowers... Every interaction with a plant is special. If only I could capture every one on paper! My brain does; my body does. Same goes for every interaction with every insect and every wild animal. My interactions with nature make up a whole facet of my being on which my worldview rests. It is the treasure of my soul. Nature has shaped me, and I aspire to trace the lines that nature has drawn on my soul like Rachel Carson, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Nan Shepherd, Rebecca Solnit, Barry Lopez, David Whyte... and many more.

Know this: there is no casual input into the nervous system. I am a bank where experience is stored and gathers interest. Every moment (and especially every moment in nature) is worth celebrating because it adds richness to our being, and value that appreciates over time. 

Here is the essay I developed at Orion Magazine’s Environmental Writers Workshop at Omega Institute, and published in Humans & Nature Magazine:

Funeral for a Stick Bug