Ten Mile: More than a Job

I feel as though I’ve aged years in the past two weeks. Moving, driving and learning have left me with time to think about what I’m doing. Thus far working training has consisted of spending as much time outside as possible and going through a variety of different lessons we will later be giving as children. Running around playing variations of tag about trophic systems and belaying someone as they scramble up a tree has become normal. I’ve already taught five lessons ranging on topics of herpetology, outdoor survival skills, several team building exercises, and belayed for high ropes activities.

Life is good. I love Grand Rapids but the change in scenery has lifted my spirit and challenged me to open up to new ideas as life is more full of work and fun.

Our house is full to the brim of bright idealists from a number of different places: Georgia, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Maine, and of course, New Mexico. Listening to accents and inflictions of each person is a good way of passing time as we bond through eating, teaching, and sleeping in the same house. Luckily we get along famously and despite (or maybe in part of) the grueling schedule have spent time having conversation and telling stories of things we’ve done and how our lives have been shaped.

Living in such idealism has led me to try out being a vegetarian once again making our house evenly split between omnivores and vegetarians. This is much easier since when we do have time off we can cook together in our smallish kitchen in the naturalist house. My interests are moving more towards the ethics of food as I’ve started rereading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and have rewatched the documentary King Corn.

Having time off is to be treasured. Thus far I’ve been trying to make the best of it spending the most time outside seeing the sights that the south has to offer. On Saturday a couple of us drove a short distance to Fall Creek Falls in another part of Tennessee. There are about three or four water falls that all converge in a deep gorge and make roughly a 100 foot drop. The spectacular scenery included a vista that you could sit quietly dangling your legs off into the gorge and watch raptors below swoop down in search of food.

The other recent outing was not as pure fun as I thought it would be. Ashley, one of the other naturalists, planned an outing with relatives to the caves at Pigeon Mountain in North Georgia. Most of our house opted to join in towards the journey of possible doom. I can’t recall even doing something that scared and challenged me as much as crawling on my belly for 25 + feet and navigating through twisty z turns while being encased in rock. There were several times when I had to stop and take some centering breaths through my nose and out my mouth to regain composure. After spending nearly six hours exploring the cave getting out was an amazing experience. First light was piercing and comforting as my retinas struggled to adjust. The warmth of the rays of the sun embraced and pulled me up with the last bits of energy I had. Details of leaves and vivid colors in the vast outdoors were stunning. I’m not quite sure if caving is something I enjoy to do with any regularity.

Speaking of caving, I’ve spent the majority of my time here dealing with some type of injury. My accident prone nature through lack of coordination has shown itself through a big bike crash that scraped up both legs and arms pretty good and stupidly messing up both knees while caving. I hope not to spend the entire season in some type bandage.

I would appreciate any suggestions for reading material that anyone has. Now that training has concluded life will be much slower and I’m looking forward to learning more and spending moments of stillness with my nose, eyes, and ears buried in a book. Most of all, if you’re reading this thanks for taking interest in my life. Hopefully I can be more attentive to updating this blog so not every post is freakishly long.

I’m off to go hike on the peninsulas we have on the property overlooking the TN river. Peace.