Postcards from My Soul

My love of nature started young.  I was often outside climbing in, talking to the trees, and talking to the plants and animals. Going camping with my parents, we would drive into the most remote places our vehicle allowed, rarely seeing other people. More often than not, I would find myself hiking off trail with my dad. He always said he was taking a short cut. The short cut inevitably turned it to the steepest, hardest terrain and always took longer than the trail but was almost always much more fun.  As well as much more challenging for a 6 year old to keep up with her 6’ 3” tall dad! * I didn’t see many camping trips during my younger adult life.  Some summer weekend car camping in pay to use camp grounds and a few stints of camping in the desert for Burning man.  Not the kind of camping in a location that felt like I belonged there.  The mossy, pine scented forest held my heart all those years while I was a city dweller or living in other states that didn’t...

Do you like Meat loaf? Not the kind you might put ketchup on, but the band.  My favorite Meat Loaf song since childhood has been Paradise by the Dashboard Lights .  I remember calling the radio station on a corded phone from the kitchen to request it.  I was so nervous I could hardly speak, thankfully the woman at the station understood what I was trying to spit out in my shaking, quiet 7 year old voice.  But that’s an entirely different topic.   Recently, I realized many people in my life don't know why I stopped eating meat.  I mean, a few people do, I have told people the reasons when they’ve asked.  If you even know I’ve stopped eating meat it’s probably because we’ve gone to dinner or you’ve invited me over and since I don’t like to go hungry I like to make sure before I go that there are options or I plan ahead and eat before I leave my house.   Full disclosure: I do still eat fish and most of the time feel bad about it.  My goal w...