\Bo*he"mi*an\:
* A nonconformist writer or artist who lives an unconventional life.
* Bohemia is a district ... bordered on the north by cold, on the west by hunger, on the south by love, and on the east by hope.
* Bohemians express themselves without regard for social convention. They attempt to experience the mysteries of life through their unique perspective.
I've had a few articles come out that I wanted to mention.
The cover feature of Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine's December issue is on the Gulf spill and Texas. It is a two-feature series, written by myself and my colleague and friend Melissa Gaskill. My article is The Forgotten Deep: The Gulf’s little-seen deep-water ecosystems may bear the brunt of the BP oil spill’s damage.
I focused on the deepwater corals that so few people even know about and they have received scant media attention. The feature also includes a sidebar on "Texas' forgotten spill" about the Eagle Otome which dumped over 400,000 of crude oil off Port Arthur in January. I wrote this piece in January just after the Texas spill occurred, but right before it was to go to press, the Gulf spill occurred and it seemed almost irrelevant while so much oil was gushing into the Gulf on a daily basis. But the Eagle Otome was a substantial spill, and I'm happy that we got to use an updated version of it for the Gulf oil spill article. Melissa's article is The Pain of the Spill. (Remember we went on the Great Gulf Coast Road Trip - day 1-2, day 3, day 4 and day 5)?
The Tiniest Catch: Marine scientists are prowling the Bering Sea to learn how climate affects minute sea creatures and the lucrative fishery that depends on them.
This is the feature I wrote for Nature on research I learned about on the Bering Sea trip - it finally came out! You may remember that in June through July I spent a month in the Bering Sea, during which I blogged for Nature. I have another feature coming out in BioScience Feb 2011 issue on the Bering Sea.
Putting Numbers to Nature. My piece on the Natural Capital Project for Momentum Magazine's Fall Biodiversity issue.
The "Wendee Holtcamp Report" on Adventures in Climate Change has reprinted some of my older articles in new ways, and they look great.
Silence of the Pikas -Will the American pika become the first species in the lower 48 states to be listed under the Endangered Species Act owing to global warming? This is only part I and the other two segments of the article will be posted soon.
Mimicking Mother Nature. A feature on biomimicry, the concept of learning from and being inspired by nature's designs - via evolution - to create innovative, sustainable products. Originally published in National Wildlife Magazine.
A Grass Roofs Effort. A piece on rooftop gardens, aka green roofs, originally published in Sierra Magazine.
My latest article has come out in the Annual Water issue of Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine, and has gotten a lot of positive attention! It's called Saving Land, Saving Water: Cities purchase land in the long-term fight to preserve aquifers. It includes a couple of my daughter's first published photos!
A new editor at the magazine sent me this when it was in editing, "I thought you did a great job on the water story. That was the story I was most worried about for that issue, and I thought you nailed it." And when the magazine came out, my other editor at the magazine sent me this email, "we’ve had great response to our July water issue. Last week, a groundwater board member called for extra copies of Wendee’s article, as he would like to see their board follow suit." It's always nice to get positive feedback! The article was based on the trip when me and the kids visited the San Antonio and Austin area during spring break - I blogged about it here. Here are the first 2 paragraphs:
As I approach the R-44, helicopter blades slowly whirring overhead, I think, “I’m not so sure about this thing.” I’ve come to Government Canyon State Natural Area, an 11,576-acre landscape on the western edge of San Antonio, to learn about the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program, through which the city’s residents earmarked sales tax to preserve vast swaths of natural lands that help ensure healthy drinking water in the aquifer below. Pilot Mike Luigs, a laid-back conservation real estate specialist, beckons me and my two teenagers. He’s smiling as if my life isn’t about to end, here and now, and my chest tightens, not at all matching the perfect spring day, all sunshine and blue sky and light breeze. “The weather couldn’t be more perfect for this,” says Luigs, who wants to show us what can’t be seen by foot. “You’ll love it.”
Encouraged by my son overcoming his own fear, nudging me, “I want to go,” we climb in, latch the doors, buckle our belts and place our earphones on. My daughter clings to the seat, I make the sign of the cross, and in two seconds flat we’re hovering, then rising higher. The limestone cliffs of Government Canyon stand out whitish-gray against the evergreen of ashe juniper trees and the still-bare deciduous trees. Signs of humanity appear in miniature from above — cars, roads, houses, swimming pools. As soon as we rise above the ground, the tension eases and my kids’ smiles tell me they’re having a blast.
I have now posted six blog posts for Nature on the Bering Sea Project, and I'll link to them below:
Mount Rainier National Park, Washington. Copyright (c) 2005 Wendee Holtcamp
There are few places in the world that have truly taken my breath away. One of them was Mt. Rainier National Park, when my dad and I drove through the park on the way back from our drive to Glacier National Park (in Montana) last year. We had taken a wrong turn, so tried to go through Mt. Rainier National Park to get to our destination but the darned road was closed when we got to the top of the pass. But where we turned around was absolutely breathtaking! It had wildflowers and glaciers and snow in autumn - just amazing. I had snow-shoed on a different part of Mt. Rainier a few years before that, which is where the picture above was taken.
Another place that took my breath away was when Matt and I drove to Alaska. We'd driven 7 long days and had passed up and through the Canadian Rockies which are just jaw-droppingly beautiful. But once we got to Alaska itself, we rounded this bend, and words just involuntarily spilled from my mouth: Oh My God. Alaska is just one of those places you have to see to believe. It was just this massive stretch of glaciated peaks that you could not believe! The third place that took my breath away - oh, wait, besides the Grove of the Patriarchs which is also in Mt Rainier National Park, is the Olympic National Park Hoh Rainforest (so I guess that makes it the 4th). It's so lush and mossy and ferny and well it reminds me of a simpler time. It reminds me of Hobbiton, the Shire of Lord of the Rings, maybe. I wonder why are all these places in the Pacific NW? I don't know, I guess even after traveling to Peru, Ecuador, Australia, Nepal my soul is in love with the Pacific NW!
At any rate, in one of the classes I teach online, a student passed along a link to an amazing article on protecting silence in our national parks - and the most silent place in all the US? The Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park (where I'm going in a couple weeks)! One of the exercises I have students in my Advanced Writing Workshop complete is to find an article that you think is truly outstanding, and then analyze why. This student chose, Silence Like Scouring Sand: One of America's quietest places, and the valiant effort to keep it that way by Kathleen Dean Moore, in Orion Magazine.
The topic, the lack of silence in our nation, also interests me because when I give feedback to students on their "Outdoor Observation Journals" which I have them do is how often the journals observe human sounds - whether cars, planes, barking dogs, or the like. I have students go out in nature, and record the sights, sounds, smells, etc but inevitably - every single journal I read - there's always some sound of humanity, even when students go on a hike in a state park or preserve. So I found this particular article really cool. And it's great writing.
My own favorite is Rick Bass' article in OnEarth Magazine, Return of the Black Rhino. It has poetry, drama, and beauty. It's got great character development, something often lacking in nonfiction conservation articles. I usually get bored by most feature articles, but this is just absolutely fantastic. There's even death, but I won't spoil the ending and say what happens... you'll have to read it yourself.
Mountain goat in Glacier National Park Copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp
"Fortune favors the audacious." -Desiderius Erasmus
I am sitting outside in my backyard and it's an absolutely glorious sunny day, no humidity - amazing for Houston - it's just gorgeous today. This morning my daughter had minor outpatient surgery to have her ear tube removed that was put in there when she was a toddler. Normally they fall out naturally but this one didn't so she had to have it removed. She did great. She's back home now.
I'm working on my Louisiana pine snake article and catching up on feedback to the journals from my Online Nature/Environment Writing Class (next one starts Sep 20!). I love the journals, because my students come from all over the world and it's so interesting to read about everyone's neck of the woods. In their Outdoor Observation Journals, I have students observe and write about the sights, sounds, smells, and even the feelings they have (touch, but also emotions) that come as a result of being outside. I always find it interesting how no matter how far away they get - in a nature preserve or park - it seems they just can't escape human development all around. Even those who hike out miles away and sit and do the journal will still write about the sounds of an airplane overhead, or dogs barking in the distance, or helicopters, or smell cigarette smoke of someone nearby. We are part of it, connected to it, but we don't always respect and care for it.
On another note, I've been reading in this book about the "three gets" of Al-Anon. I don't attend Al-Anon meetings but am very familiar with codependency issues, as many people raised in chaotic and dysfunctional homes, as I was, have some of these traits. I have dealt with a lot of it, but it's a process! Anyway, so these are the 3 gets which I just found really interesting:
1. Get off your partner's back - basically stop responding to what they are doing, suggesting things, trying to change them, and let them be themselves and do their own thing. 2. Get out of your partner's way - don't give advice or negative feedback. You make your partner's behavior none of your business. 3. Get on with your life - deal with your own issues.
These would seem to be pretty tough sugestions if you're in an active relationship especially if the partner is an alcoholic, addict, or has other big issues! But one thing I have found really interesting is the statement that every person has the right to exist exactly as they are in the world. And when we let go of our wishes and expectations and get on with our own lives, sometimes the things we want come to us naturally. Sometimes we have to reach out and let the person know how much we care, but ultimately we have to let go of the illusion of control and let people be themselves, and let them know who they are is ok. And of course, we also have the right to choose our response to that person's behavior. Maybe we want to end the relationship or friendship or put it on hold. We can state our preferences, but often people tend to say the same thing over and over...which typically does not do much good and often has the opposite effect because the other person sees you're not really serious because you say you don't like it but you continue to tolerate it! All I know is that letting go and letting God is way easier said than done. And this is one of the favorite pieces of advice I've gotten about love, "Love the other person more than you love yourself."
Another thing I've read is that part of the problem with the world is that parents try to change kids: Don't be angry. Be nice. Don't lie. They give the message that part of their natural humanity is "bad" when all these things are natural parts of human behavior. As Debbie Ford wrote in her latest book, when can that tendency to lie help someone? Maybe for a little kid that you're telling not to lie ever ever ever, it might actually help that kid to lie to some stranger at the door, or in a chat room. Things are not always so black and white.
I also got this in my daily email thing:
Accepting people as they are is also transformational. For years, a man tried to get his elderly mother to stop complaining. One day he gave up trying to change her and accepted her faults. This experience of unconditional love opened her heart to the point where she stopped condemning herself and others. If there is some area of your life that you are seeking to change, first practice acceptance. By acknowledging where you are and giving thanks for the good that you have received, you will release an energy that will transform you and your present circumstances. - Douglas Bloch in Listening to Your Inner Voice
If I ever went back to school, I think I'd want to become a psychotherapist. I love psychology!
And last but not least, this is just too funny! It has like a 2-second ad followed by a cartoon thingie. From Salon.com
Sunset on the San Jacinto River Copyright (c) 2006 Wendee Holtcamp
Today I saw a vision of the world wide and raw and beautiful. A flock of white birds pierced the blue as I drove my car across the San Jacinto on my way to church. They turned this way and that, cracking the stillness with the greater serenity of their sky dance. Beyond my vision, daily, the world of Creation goes on about its business. And I am humbled. And I am awed.
I once watched an island of birds nesting, interacting, squawking, talking, fighting, kissing, taking care of their offspring and realized this went on with or without my witnessing it. A whole world of wildlife lives and breathes and breeds and dies without us ever noticing. And how do we honor that Creation? God speaks these humbling words to Job:
Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you attend the wild doe when she is calving? Can you count the months they carry their young or know the timing of their delivery, when they crouch down to open their wombs and deliver their offspring when the fawns growing and thriving in the open country leave and do not return?
Who has let the Syrian wild ass range at will and given the Arabian wild ass its freedom? I have made its haunts in the wilderness and its home in the saltings; it disdains the noise of the city and does not obey a driver's shout; it roams the hills as its pasture in search of a morsel of green (Job 39: 1-8, Oxford Study Bible)
And on and on it goes, putting humanity in our place. Beautiful poetry.
I felt uncomfortable and disturbed inside after an intense group session delving into my soul and spirit and past, and I walked behind our church down a trail to the bridge over the creek, where I leaned over the rail and watched the turtles play. The air was dry and warm. A perfect, cool breeze came. I watched a little red-eared slider kiss a larger turtle, or so it seemed, again and again. It must have been eating parasites or something but there it was, entertaining me with its antics.
And then amongst the dozens of sliders, I saw a big softshell turtle with its head emerging. I watched it, and even as the sliders passed by it, it would not move a muscle. And then after minutes of watching the same scene, I saw a second softshell the same size as the first that I'd not seen until I kept watching, observing their world. It revealed itself to me by silently watching. It had not arrived, it had been there all along but I'd missed it until all of a sudden, I saw it. It reminded me of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (one of my all-time favorite books), and her thesis of 'seeing.' We can not see what we do not watch and observe and wait to reveal itself to us. And within that moment my inner disturbance left me, and I found the answers, for now, for then. I realized why, and connected the feeling to the reason. I left the turtles, walking back down the forested greenway with a deeper sense of peace. I knew.
Catch: Marine scientists are prowling the Bering Sea to learn how climate affects minute sea creatures and the lucrative fishery that depends on them.
