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| Sandstone rocks, Red Rock Canyon, Nevada |
There is a magic in the small things of life. All my life I have been a collector of bits
and pieces of nature.
I’ve had soda
crates filled with rocks under my bed, nests and feathers tucked into a
shoebox, bits of leaves and flowers pressed into books, shells and driftwood in
plastic tubs. My parents begged me to
leave the rocks behind when we moved.
How could I? They were from
places visited and each one held a memory – my own little Cabinets of
Curiosities.
I love the tiny pieces of life that tell a story of the
world around me. It might be a leaf; it might be an acorn cracked by a
squirrel. It might be a broken shell, maybe
be a piece of wave-washed coral. Altogether,
these parts tell a whole story.
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| Things from my yard, Naples, Florida |
I do my collecting in images now. The act of drawing or painting an assortment
of natural objects brings me joy. Each
page is a cabinet of curiosity, and each natural object relates to the
other.
What is it about humans that drives us to collect, store,
and display these bits of the natural world? I’ve only collected found objects, but there
are big game hunters and orchid collectors and pot hunters who are not so
benign. I’ve often wondered at the
motivation to gather these items. What
deeper meaning drives this behavior? How
does this shape our relationship to Nature?
For me, it's because they tell of my travels and I want to
revisit that story. They represent discarded remnants (a fallen
nest), or clues of a past meal (the cracked acorn), or a story of the passage
of time (a fossil shell). These are
important things. They are treasures,
and they hold magic. The magic is in the
life that went before, and the story told now.
On your next hike or visit to the ocean or park, look for
those small pieces of nature – let them fill your life with that same magic of
discovery that fills every joyful five-year-old child. Let their story connect to yours. These connections can fill us with humility, wonder, and awe of the vibrancy of life, until we are filled and overflowing, then to share our story.
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| Things from along the Upper Iowa River prairie bottom Decorah, Iowa |
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| Things from my yard, Naples, Florida |
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| Things from the shore, Gulf of Mexico Naples, Florida |
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