I grew up in a small town in northern Ohio. I played sports, fished, trapped, hunted, baled hay and spent a lot of time outdoors. I knew that I wanted to be a biologist and to study animals from a young age. I joined the army after high school and spent two years serving in an infantry platoon before returning to Ohio to use my GI Bill funds to go to college. I received a degree in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana in Missoula. I focused on birds during my undergraduate studies, and during the summer I assisted with research on Lazuli Buntings. I am an author on the Lazuli Bunting and Stellar’s Jay Birds of the World Species Accounts. During this time I also met my wife, Mercy. Following graduation we returned to the Midwest to her home state of Illinois, and we both got more degrees. My first job after my Master’s Degree was working as a biologist for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources; following that I got my dream job as a Land Steward with The Nature Conservancy.
I met farmers when I was working for TNC and somehow that led me to becoming an organic vegetable farmer. I ran my own vegetable farm for seven years while raising two young boys. Leaving the farm was a painful transition, and I was adrift for a few years. I worked for a small nonprofit in the local food scene and as a salesman in our local bike shop. I eventually got hired by the University of Illinois as a Local Food System Educator and worked there for six years. That was a wild ride. I was not a good fit, but I began to accept myself and recognize my abilities. I helped a lot of people, but I did it by doing what I thought needed to be done. That did not go over well with the hierarchy, and they decided not to renew my contract. That was a breaking point for me that ended up spurring tremendous growth. Thank god for Rich Roll. His podcast changed my life and sent me on a journey of self discovery. This resulted in my being able to overcome some lifelong addictions and better manage my low self esteem. That released me to pursue my life from a completely different perspective. Somewhere along the way I discovered Charles Eisenstein. His podcast and writing resonated with me and spurred me along and helped me see myself within a much larger context. Charles is amazing.
So, here I am now, the shy and introverted small town boy on a hero’s journey to realize his potential in the world. I am not sure where this will take me, but I know that the process of exploring this is the journey I was meant to be on. During the pandemic I renewed my interest in wildlife photography and birding. This prompted me to tell stories about birds and that brings me to this website, where I can share my photos and stories.
I strive to be a patient observer of nature and to capture intimate images of wildlife in my yard and surrounding city and county parks in Illinois. My hope is that by combining writing that describes my experiences with these images, I will help others become a little more curious and connected to nature. For me, this process is part of a journey of self discovery as well. I am an avid reader and consumer of podcasts, and I have gone through several challenging episodes in my life that I have used to fuel growth and change. I like to ask myself this question: What am I capable of?
I asked myself this question a couple of years ago when I started running again after a 20-year hiatus. I thought I was too old to run and that I would just hurt myself. I also was not sure how fast or far I could run. I read a couple of books and took a few tentative steps that turned into a few miles and, before I knew it, I was thoroughly enjoying running. My watch kept telling me that I was running a 9-minute mile, and I thought I was running faster than that. So, I marked out one mile on google maps on our local running trail and then went out and ran it as fast as I could. I ran that mile in 7 minutes and 45 seconds. At that point I asked myself how fast I could run a mile. I trained over the summer and went to the track in the fall with my son as inspiration. We came up with a plan for me to hold a 1 minute and 30 second pace for four laps so I could finish a mile in 6 minutes. It turns out that I did not finish in six minutes. I finished in six minutes and ten seconds. There is a large gap between thinking that I could not run at all and running a mile in just over six minutes. It was entirely in my head.
I now take this approach with other aspects of my life, and I have found the same pattern to hold in general. We do not know what we are capable of until we explore the possibilities with an open mind. My mind has been opened by the writing and podcasts that Charles Eisenstein hosts. He is a gift to humanity, and I would like to extend this gift to others. You can engage with my work on multiple levels. If you like seeing pictures of birds, nature and gardens, that is great. If you also have an interest in personal growth, my writing will combine nature observation with insights into how I leverage that to explore new terrain within myself. I hope this can serve as a model for others.