Memory Lane

  Studies have shown that one of the the biggest similarities among advocates for the environment is that they spent time in the outdoors as children with an adult they respected. That's it. Who knew it would be that easy? Share your love of the outdoors with a child and there's a good chance they'll grow into an adult that cares about the natural world.

  Lucky me. I had a dad who loved to talk about and be in nature. He was a science teacher, both inside the classroom and out. We grew up road-tripping around North America, parading through National Parks along the way. Sure, camping was the cheapest way to travel, but it was also the most adventurous. We were nothing special. We had no high tech gear. Our tent was probably from K-mart, sleeping bags as well. Our sleeping pads were layers of cotton blankets. It was not unusual to wake up with soaked feet in the morning but MAN, was it fun!

  My mom was raised and raising us Catholic but dad was agnostic. I remember once he took my brother and I out to Standing Bear Lake in Omaha where we sat at a picnic table, listening to him explain his "religion." He explained that he had faith in facts, in science, in the human spirit and that anything beyond that, he couldn't commit to. He told us why, outside of any denomination of faith background, he felt it was important for us to take care of the earth and one another. Then, he went out and lived it. He picked up trash everywhere we went, often to my teenage embarrassment. We continued our cross-country treks, car camping and day hiking. I will never forget the first time I saw a mountain goat or running barefoot down a glacier with my brother in Montana (which, by the way, I highly recommend).

  And after all of this...I grew up to study science and love the environment. I grew up to take others, as well as myself, outside at any opportunity. To seek adventure not only in travel but in the everyday. I grew up believing that if we put our minds to it, humanity can achieve anything.

  Some may have heard me say it before but it's hard to identify just how much space a person occupies in your spirit, your mind, your heart and the world until they are no longer there. At 58, my dad passed away suddenly and painlessly last Saturday. It was 30 years too soon but if there is a good way to go, he found it while dancing and telling jokes in Washington state.

  My grandma is in Washington and he was out helping around the house and catching up with old high school buddies. Washington was almost always our destination while road-tripping and I spent a lot of time as a kid exploring the Pacific Northwest. There were a few specific places that held special meaning in our hearts and, as we made the journey to retrieve dad, we made a point to revisit some of these sites in his honor and memory. It was a really special time for my family.

  If you'll allow, I would like to take this week to tell you about some of these places. Show you pictures, share some memories and reflect on the power that an outdoor landscape can hold in a life and spirit. Those of us who spend time outside know that these places become part of our identity. They become part of our whole being, a spiritual center. And often they can become these things because once, as a child, someone bothered to show them to us.

  Thanks, dad. Thanks for instilling in me the importance of not only loving our natural world, but teaching me how to care for it. Thanks for being an example of doing what was right, even when it embarrassed your teenage children. Now, in sharing these places and spaces, I see you everywhere I look. You are standing on the mountains outside my window and seeing the stars in the sky close up (lucky!). You are the physics of a waterfall and the pH balance of the soil. You will be missed.

(Greatest road trip ever! Omaha- Badlands & Black Hills w/ Mt Rushmore- Devils Tower- Grand Tetons- Yellowstone- Helena, MT- Glacier Nat'l Park- Waterston Park, Canada- Calgary- Edmonton- Road to the Sun- Grandma's, Longview, WA- Oregon coast- Sacramento / San Francisco- Lake Tahoe- Salt Lake City- Omaha)

I would be remiss in not mentioning that my mom had massive impact on who I am today and that in combination, I have been able to believe a positive relationship between science and religion.