A Naturalist Reborn

A Naturalist Reborn: Visiting the Memory of a Mentor

Feb. 2013

“There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself.”

Howard Thurman

 (photo by Angela Lucas)

I call myself a Naturalist. This is how I have defined myself, always, no matter what else I have been occupied with while traversing the hills and valleys of my Life.

Something always remains the same: I love Nature, I study and observe Nature, I help people find connections with Nature. 

 (photo by Brian McCutcheon)

“To teach is to get others to see and understand it (the concept) on their own terms. To enable the student to get in touch with what he already knows – and re-discover it on his own.”

Rabbi Noah Weinberg

Though this is essential to my soul, years have gone by during which I did not study or write much, and wasn't, in fact, outside observing very much. Well, not beyond my garden.

For some years before that, Life was filled with intense Nature Study; peering through dissecting scopes, scrambling over and around hills, taking notes, writing reports, or sitting and watching at waterside. Behaving, in the classic sense, like a Naturalist.

“What I need is not to look at all, but a true sauntering of the soul.”

Henry David Thoreau

Before that, there were all of those growing-up years full of watching ants in the back yard, roaming the woods picking flowers, climbing trees, and going on camping trip hikes with my family.

And who was I at birth?

Is a Naturalist born a Naturalist?

I only know that I've been aware of my connection with Nature all along the way.

I know I've come to a place in Life where I can return diligently to being a Naturalist in the classic sense. I'm back on the Trails. I'm a Naturalist Reborn. 

“Who we are now is all that has happened before us, happening as us, in the now. Who we are moves us, into the next moment and the next. All our ancestors and everything they did, every decision they made, everything they learned is happening now.  And our ancestors are not only people – but also the river, mountains, rock, fire, land, ocean, forest, bobcat, and deer.”

Paul Rezendez

And I know that, all along this trail, I have benefited from the wise aid of mentors.

I have been revisiting the memory of a mentor named Lynn Wiseman. Lynn was a retired minister and the wildflower expert in our neck of the woods, so to speak. He roamed all over the area, finding plants and studying them, especially wildflowers. He took many beautiful photos of the plants and other aspects of Nature.

The above photo shows Lynn the way I remember him, with a calm smile, in the midst of Nature. He is surrounded by the white blooms of Trillium flexipes (Drooping Trillium), along Trail 2 at Ouabache Trails Park, here in Knox County, Indiana.

Lynn had a special love for Ouabache Trails, a botanically rich area. He probably knew it more than anyone else, and he cared deeply about the place and the wildlife within it. 

 He also often shared that love with others, directly on the trails or through his photography. 

In 1998, the nature center at the park was dedicated as the Lynn Wiseman Nature Center.

One of my last memories of Lynn goes back to April 1996, during a special event at the park, probably the same day the photo was taken of him with the Trillium.  I was sitting and talking with Lynn in the sun, near two places that would, two years later, be named for him. He had recently recovered from surgery. He would no longer be able to traverse the trails, woods, hills, fields and ravines.

He looked at me with that same calm smile and said, “It's up to you, now.”

At the time, I was in the middle of that most important endeavor - being the mother of a young child. I would not follow in Lynn's footsteps for a long time, but those words stayed with me.

I have also kept with me memories of soft-spoken phrases such as, “Have you seen the Starry Campion along the park road?”

(Since then, yes, I have seen it.)

I am part of an effort to bring the Lynn Wiseman Nature Center back to the the kind of place it needs to be if it is to live up to the honor of the name. I'm part of the effort to establish Friends of Ouabache Trails (Lynn would have jumped right in).

I am back to observation, study and writing.

I am back on the Trails.

Here it is, late February. I feel I'm coming up through the leaf litter again, getting ready to bloom.

As Spring shows itself, gradually, in small ways, I'm coming to Life, gradually, into this Naturalist world. 

I will continue to grow from my foundation.

Here is the place where the photo of Lynn was taken, 17 years ago, surrounded by Trillium flexipes, along Trail 2.

 This photo was taken on February 17, 2013.

What is a Naturalist? I believe a Naturalist is one who studies and observes the natural world as it is, and then “walks” beside others, in some way, helping them to realize their own connection to the natural world. We are all connected, to begin with.

“I am not sure of the purpose of man, any more than I am sure of the purpose of the stars, but here we are, and there they are, and among us there is a discernible order, a continuity.”

Hal Borland

I remember those who have walked with me as I learned. I will probably become a mentor for someone else someday.

So, there's a little about me. But this blog, Terri of the Trails, is really about you. I hope you come on my trail walks through this blog and experience this world with me.