Regaining Contact



Nature at the tennis courts



Wednesday evening I played a game of tennis with my brother at a local park.  He's good, I'm decent but that is beside the point.  Playing tennis together was something we started this past summer; we usually do not hang out much with our 5 year age difference so it was a good way to do some sibling bonding.  Being outside in the slowly fading light with the fall breeze blowing cooled down my heated body felt well.  I was with my brother, having fun and I was outside.  The park has trees surrounding it on all sides.  There were leaves in the four corners of the fenced in courts.  Nature was a part of this man made area.  I breathed deeply and I immediately felt calm even though I was sweating like crazy.  I just felt good.

Thursday for me was chaotic and I hardly noticed what was around me and the calmness I had felt the night before was non-existent.  Today that changed.  I am in an Environmental Field class so every Friday we go to a different preserve or park.  Today was West Lake Nature Preserve and Bishop’s Bog.  They are in Portage, where I live and I have been to them multiple times before.  They are places with good memories.  Eight years ago my family went there on mother’s day and I remember it being a good time.  I drove over with my professor and we all sat on the ground waiting for a few more students.  I listened to the conversation but mostly I looked around me.  It had been some time since I had been there.  The last few years of my life were busy with school and my family went out less and less together to places like this.  The trees were beautiful golden and red.  Fall is my favorite season for this reason.  I find the leaves changing color more pretty then flowers in the spring.  I love the smell that is in the air and how the days get slowly cooler.  I wanted to stare at them for hours.  I felt as good as I did at the Nature Center.  We walked through the park’s paths.  The preserve was a marsh but because of the season it was mostly dry.  I learned about picture plants and what thrives in the marsh.  However I gazed at the sky and surrounding trees more than I did listening.  We went on to Bishop’s Bog, which was very similar except that it was wetter then the preserve.   At one point walking along the super decks/floating decks water squirted up from the holes and splashed on my legs.  In the springtime the decks would be flooded.  It was a one way path and as we walked down we stopped periodically to listen to our professor.   When we got to the marshy stream we paused.  A snake came out of the grass and surprised us all.  He posed for pictures as a few of us whipped out our cameras.  He slowly slithered up to a guys shoes and he stayed still as the snake stared about.  We named him Lyle and he went away.  As we walked back I kept up a brisk pace but looked all around me taking in what I might have missed on the walk out there.  On the drive back to campus my professor mentioned that Portage does a really good job at having and maintaining nature parks.  I completely agree with him.  I grew up in Portage and for a suburban town it is full of the natural world.  When I drove home from campus I paid attention to the trees along the road at Oakland I witnessed gorgeous trees changing color.  Our backyard nature is not as romanticized as a national forest or a cities nature preserve but it is just as beautiful, you just have to take the time to look.  It is right there in front of you and can get forgotten about in our busy lives.  If happened to me multiple times this week.  But in the end just looking and letting myself calm down I can become one with nature.

Kalamazoo Nature Center






Prairie Grass

Today our class took a field trip to the Kalamazoo Nature Center.  I have been there a few times in the past so I thought I knew what to expect but was still excited.  Our whole class walked the prairie together.  It was gorgeous.  I walked and gazed into the tall grasses, letting my hand (which had fallen to my side) graze through the grass.  Feeling the grass immediately put me in touch with nature.  I was walking along connected to the prairie, for a few brief moments I was a part of it.  Then our guide started talking again.  I would like to see what those grasses look like next year after 2 years of growth.



Logs in the river

   After that our class went in different directions.  I followed a section and every now and then paused to capture the beauty around me with my camera.  Trying to preserve it to look back upon.  We ended up taking the trail to the Kalamazoo River.  There was about 6 of us and we walked and chatted about random things.  Again I would stop to take a picture, looking around me the only sign of man was the wood that made up the trail.  The trees rose from the ground up to the blue sky.  Leaves scattered the ground causing me to look forward to the changing of their color and watching them drift down from the sky in the next month.  I stopped at a little overview of a stream that lead into the river.  It peacefully trickled by, so clear.  I caught up with the group at the overhang view at the river.  It looked like any other river I've had the opportunity to canoe/visit but that did not take away its beauty.  It was strangely calm and quiet.  There was a  tree hanging into the water and I crannied my neck to view it through branches.  Rivers are amazing that way; the trees fall into the river making them have twist and turns in them if you were to be going down the river.  It adds character and shows that it is not static but instead forever changing.  Eventually only 3 of us remained by the river.  I sneaked over the caution rope ignoring the sign to stay of the river.  I climbed down and stood as close to the water as I could.  I wish I could've walked right into it, but I had a class that day and I didn't want to go wet and muddy.  I took more pictures and wished I could stay out there the whole day.  Having a busy productive life is both good and bad.  The bad part is that I rarely get the chance anymore to do what I did today out at the nature center.  I relaxed and was myself with nature.

  We eventually left and walked back where we came from.  I decided to walk over the hill and railroad tracks instead of the tunnel.  Looking down the tracks with trees on both ends was sweet.  It looked like it could go on forever, with trees still visible in the distance.  Three of us, Juan, Alec, and I decided to walk back the longer way beside the stream.  And I am very glad we did. 

The stream

  Being in a forest surrounded by trees, running water and banks takes all the stress I was carrying with me and melted it away.  The stream flowed, without a care in the world, going over rocks and around fallen branches.  I put my purse down and hopped on a rock in the middle of the stream, I pivoted taking in the stream and forest from all angles.  I was standing in it, I was a piece that the stream had to flow around.  We slowly kept walking, pausing to take in what was before us and just relax.  We jumped across the stream to the opposite bank abandoning the trial.  I sat down on the ground and looked across the stream to view where I once had been standing.  As this was happening a few kids and adults walked by.  The kids were jabbering away about the trees and one boy kept exclaiming about the different leaves.  It made me think about how I viewed nature as a kid.  It was a place of adventure and new discoveries.  It still its that way today, but slightly more muted.  Now, grown up slightly, I also look at nature with a sense of reverence.  It is spiritual to me.  I am a part of nature and nature is a part of me.  I wish that I didn't have a 2 o'clock class today so that the nagging sense of time kept butting in reminding me that I could not stay.
  While zooming back to campus to make my class I felt a shift inside me that I cannot really explain.  The peace I felt just a few minutes previously was replace by a sense of urgency and stress.  My radio was blaring some ridiculous song and I felt disgusted with my self.  I could not keep the feelings I had in the forest with me when I left.  I had lost contact, losing a part of my self in the process.

Nature filled weekend!

Asylum Lake Preserve Map

  First off, welcome to my blog!  As the title describes it is about nature.  I am an Environmental Studies major at  Western Michigan University and I love to be outside!  A class I am taking is ENVS 2260 and its called Field Environmental Ecology.  We take field trips every week and last Friday we went to Asylum Lake Preserve in Kalamazoo.  I had never been there before.  When I got there I just wanted to run around but controlled myself and gathered with my class to go over particulars.  The preserve is an 274 acre section of land that is owned by Western.  It has two lakes, forest sections, prairie sections and savanna sections.  Our class of 16 people walked the paths in the forest and worked on identifying trees.  We only covered a section of the whole preserve and I want to go back and explore it on my own.  My experience was fresh air mixed in with awe of my surroundings.  Usually when I am outside its my backyard which isn't even an acre.  To be in that much space filled with only the trees and the sunlight that filtered through was wonderful.  Once you get in, away from the parking lot, you no longer hear traffic.  the only evidence of human interaction is the remnants of an old mental hospital and some cement paths.  When class ended early I was sad to go, but I am looking forward to going back this Friday.

The cows

  My nature filled weekend did not end there.  Today I went to the Southwest Michigan Harvest Festival in Scotts, Michigan.  I was volunteering and participating in the event.  The festival took place at Tillers International.  Their mission is "to preserve, study, and exchange low capital technologies that increase sustainability and productivity of people in rural communities..."  They farm with human and animal labor without using fossil fuels.    They are all about learning how to make and produce on your own.  The site is a working farm so I saw some farm animals when walking around.  Once I left the cluster of tents I could smell freshness.  Their museum is actually an old barn when they display old farm equipment of every size.  My job as a volunteer was to make sure that people did not touch the artifacts and some of them were very dangerous.  At 2 the guest speaker, Richard Heinber, gave his presentation and I listened to it while keeping an eye on the artifacts.  His speech was about living without fossil fuels and the steps our society needs to take to transition into a post carbon world.  The summary is that we need to start eating locally, using renewable resources, and learning to produce our own food.  Outside of the museum were two goats who kept trying to come in the building and someone from Tillers would then have to gently get them back outside.  Walking back from the museum I stopped and observed the cows.  It was then when it hit me that I was at a farm were people are making a difference.  They were farming without wearing down their animals.  They emphasis learning "old trades".  They have blacksmithing classes, woodworking classes etc.  It was a very enjoyable experience today at the Festival.  I even bought myself a t-shirt that says "Tree Hugging, Dirt Worshiping".  The shirt is made off bamboo, an organic material.  When I left I felt guilty for getting in my car and driving away.  I wish I had a hybrid car, or at least biked everywhere I had to go, but Scotts was to far of a bike ride for me.  I was instilled with the desire to farm, eat locally and learn to live off of nature instead of on top of it.
  One of the booths I had stopped at today was the Michigan Nature Association.  They have at least 50 sanctuaries all over the state of Michigan.  Their mission its to protect and maintain the natural environment of theses areas.  It's something that I really want to be a part of.  I want to be out in nature, experiencing what I want to save and what society needs to save.  They are a volunteer based organization so I signed up to be on the mailing list and hope there is opportunities where I can get involved.  And of course I will share those experiences here!