If I can point to any single moment when I first thought to throw in my lot with the ecologists-turned-writers, when my mind first paused to say, "Yes, perhaps my life is for this," that moment would be as I was discovering Barbara Kingsolver's book of essays, Small Wonder, in the fall of 2004. Her poetic language and masterful blending of topics near to my heart -- the beauty and sorrow of human culture, an understanding of and concern for the environment, the miracles of everyday life -- captured my imagination and my hope that I too could inspire others with the written word and with my passion for the planet.
My life since that moment has been an arc bending toward environmental journalism. Whether that arc will continue on in that direction or break off into another -- well, I suppose I'll just find out.
The following quote is an excerpt from that book which helped inspire both the course of my life and the name of this blog:
"What I can find is this, and so it has to be: conquering my own despair by doing what little I can. Stealing thunder, tucking it in my pocket to save for the long drought. Dreaming in the color green, tasting the end of anger. Don't ask me for the evidence. The possibility of a kinder future, the existence of God -- these are just two of many things that fall into the category I would label 'impossible to prove, and proof is not the point.' Faith has a life of its own.
Maybe the cynics are on top of the game, and maybe they're not. Maybe it doesn't cost anything to hope, and those of us who do will be able to live better, more honest lives as believers than we could as cynics ... Maybe life doesn't get any better than this, or any worse, and what we get is just what we're willing to find: small wonders, where they grow."
~Barbara Kingsolver, Small Wonder: Essays
