To Walk this Earth is the Greatest Gift Possible

Most of my current life is wrapped around nature. I happen to live in one of the most biodiverse areas on the entire planet. Everywhere I turn there are plants I've never noticed, bugs I've never caught, criters I've never awwed at, and even things beyond normal understanding!

I spend much of my time camping and hiking through nature, because to feel close to the Earth is to feel close to yourself.

If you have any way to do it, and especially if you never have, next opportunity you get take off your shoes in the grass, or on some moss, or the sand, and just lose yourself in the texture. Slow your breathing and feel your center grow closer to the Earth.

Taking care of this world is taking care of yourself, and vice versa, so getting closer to the Earth is possibly the best piece of advice I could ever give to anyone.

My favorite season is Winter, close second is Spring, third is Fall, and distant (at least where I live) is Summer.

My favorite animal to see out and about is the humble opossum, though seeing river otters is an experience I'm glad I get to have

The most interesting creatures around here are the ones you don't find in books, well not biology books, well not serious ones anyways. I'm talking about cryptids. I'm a woman of science, but to say that there aren't things that defy logic and reason in the world is to be almost as ignorant as a flat-earther. My personal reasoning for them is simple, and draws on stories told to me by the first people to live here; they are warnings, signs from nature that things are wrong, and that we can't adapt as fast as the Earth can outgrow us. I think that makes sense to me, as I try to be good to nature, and have never been scared of them, never felt in danger by their prescence. I just hope they show themselves to the politicians and billionaires of the world, soon.