Final Blog

Throughout this entire class, I have found myself contemplating my true place in nature. The idea of a place in nature can be twisted into so many concepts, so many ideas. My favorite place to physically be in nature, a place where I feel safe, is a huge tree in my backyard woods. My favorite poet I was introduced to throughout the class was Wendell Berry. In the poem “The Sycamore” he describes my relationship with that tree perfectly: "In the place that is my own place, whose earth I am shaped in and must bear, there is an old tree growing..." My place in nature however, as far as a relationship with it is concerned, is to protect it. I feel connected with nature when I sit in my tree, when I look at my dog, and when I walk on the beach in front of my grandmother’s house. All of these experiences and relationships are perfectly integrated with nature.
One of the novels we read in the class entitled “Looking for Hickories: The Forgotten Wildness of the Rural Midwest” was written by an author who lives in my hometown. His name is Tom Springer and he was the most inspiring author we read, for me, and by far the most entertaining guest speaker we had the privilege to meet. This book was my favorite, not only for the numerous references to things that I have personally experienced (streets, shops, and homes), but because if the intense relationships the author depicts between himself and nature. I can so easily relate to that.
Nature has forever been a huge part of my life, my childhood especially is engrained with images of tree-climbing, sand pits, swimming and playing in the rain. These memories are priceless to me and this class gave me an amazing awareness for how important they really are to me. I have so many memories of myself and all the other kids from my neighborhood playing baseball with a type of fruit known as an osage orange. When I came across a passage in Tom Springer’s novel describing osage oranges, my heart fluttered. “And the softball sized fruit of the Osage is a study in delightful weirdness.” It’s these earthly relationships that connect us all at the core of our being.
In Alison Swan’s book “Fresh Water: Women Writing on the Great Lakes”, there is a specific quote that has stuck with me throughout the semester. “The wind blows so hard off Lake Ontario that at odd times my entire house shivers and groans like a big elderly dog stretching in a dream.” This passage was written by Leigh Allison Wilson. Of all the works we read this semester, something about this warmed my soul. Maybe it’s my love for my old dog. Maybe it’s my similar experiences in an old house by the lake in a storm. Whatever it is, this, and other passages like it, brings me back to the raw nature of us as humans. We long for a connection to the natural world, to this earth from which we came. This entire class, overall, opened my eyes to this fact and so many more details of the importance of knowing your place in nat