Spring is coming!

Headed over to Petoskey State Park the other day to do a bit of rockhounding. Wasn't sure if the snow was gone from the beach and was happy to see it was.

While the bay is still socked in with ice, it is starting to break up near the shore, providing mini icebergs which were fun to float on in the shallow water.

And just like the cracks in the ice, the break between seasons is observable in my body now too, felt as a tension, a desire to get on with things. To leave behind the winter activities which I have enjoyed fully, and open to new experiences as warmer weather is ushered in.

The Call...

I feel a pull, a tug, to fall into the natural world and quite possibly never return. How wonderful to spend my days listening to the wind tell its tales or to the trees sharing their wisdom. To wrap my arms around wildness as I try and discover ways to connect to the mysteries of the natural world. For a long time man's world hasn't worked for me as I've watched it pave over nature to build and create things nobody really needs. Taking from the very thing that sustains us.

I have been preparing for this departure for a long while. Spending countless hours on wooded trails, reading books about nature, taking classes, coaxing others outdoors into the wilds with me. Always wanting, desiring, to discover ways to connect deeply with the natural world. The call has become so loud, I know now I must answer it. I must seek out the answers that keep me awake at night, that draw me outdoors into the woods or down to the lake by day. I don't know where this wild path will take me but I do feel a need to write it down in order to help me make sense of where I have been and where I might be going, and thus the reason for this journal.