That means me, actually, Michelle Cook. To be honest, wandering in a forest (or beach, mountain, meadow, desert…) truly is something I love to do! What’s the point, you ask? Well, walking in nature is healthy in so many ways, physically, mentally, even spiritually, and it’s something most of us can do easily. Primarily I’m hoping to inspire with this blog. It seems we are becoming more disconnected, more stressed out, and sometimes more indifferent to so much of the world around us. And to me that’s not just a pity, it’s a catastrophe!
Walking in nature is a simple, yet profound, way of de-stressing and reconnecting – reconnecting with the world, and reconnecting with ourselves as well, in a very fundamental way.
I was fortunate to have grown up in a very beautiful part of the world, with wilderness just outside my door. This instilled in me a deep love of wildlife and the natural world. Now, as I’m nearing retirement age, this connection to nature has become increasingly important to me. Nature, for me, is the best way to cultivate inner peace. Considering all of the stresses we live with each
day, I’m guessing there are other folks out there who are looking for ways of bringing a little more calm into their hectic lives.
A large part of my life consists of volunteer work, nearly all of which is centered around raptors (birds of prey). I have worked with eagles, hawks, falcons, owls, and vultures for nearly 25 years, and it’s still the most amazing thing I do each week! My blog posts will likely mention the raptors I work with from time to time, and I’m hoping this too will spark an interest in some who might not be familiar with birds of prey, or even wildlife in general.
Essentially, I move with the quiet streams, not the babbling brooks or the rushing rivers. My heart beats with the pulse of nature and tries to keep pace with wild creatures. My love of the natural world has spurred me into starting this blog, and we will see where this journey takes us!
Please tune in and wander along with me. I plan on taking an array of different walks, and will hopefully have photos to share from each location. On occasion I will probably write about places I’ve visited in the past as well, in the U.S. and in other countries. Regardless, I would love to bring a little bit of nature to you, maybe a little bit of peace into your life, and hopefully inspire you to cultivate or rekindle those connections within yourself. Enjoy!
“When we try to pick out anything by itself we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords that cannot be broken, to everything in the universe.” – John Muir