Woods Wanderer

Nearly a year ago, Marcus Smith cold called to see if I’d be willing to be interviewed for his podcast, Constant Wonder. He had just discovered my work online. We talked at length that evening and made a deep connection. The next day he ordered a Kindle version of my somewhat mystical book Apprehensions of What-Is, while I went to his website and checked out some of the podcasts he has done. Then I said yes.

We finally got the ball rolling on this project in June, when his people at Brigham Young University send me a microphone kit. I connected it to my desktop computer and Marcus interviewed me for three hours in July. Those of you who have been around me know that I can be quite chatty. Immediately following the interview, I felt I had said too much.

The podcast, Arguing with the Wind: A Spiritual Journey in Wilderness, has just been released. When I first listened to it, I was blown away. Marcus brilliantly edited my three hours of blather into a one-hour podcast that captures the essence of who I am. He focused mostly on my brief sojourn in the Alaskan bush in ’92 and the succession of events that led to me going there.

I’ve been writing, recounting my backwoods experiences, and shouting my worldview into the world for decades. But my voice is only one of hundreds of millions of voices out there. The world is a noisy place, especially online, so I’ve never really felt exposed… until now.

All I can say is, thank God that Marcus is the one who has told this essential part of my life story! Even though we have never met, he seems to know what I’m all about.

That said, it feels weird to have such an intimate part of my personal life out there in a one-hour podcast for anyone to access. Suddenly I have an overwhelming urge to run off to that remote cabin in the Adirondacks, where I’ve been before, and completely disconnect. Yeah, I’ll get around to that again soon enough.

Tags: being human, being in the world, ecstatic moments, existential despair, mystical encounter, nature, podcast, spirituality, storytelling, the Alaskan bush, wandering, wilderness, wildness, wonder

For five years Judy and I fed a chipmunk that we casually called Chippy. He kept showing up on our patio, so we put out a few nuts for him. Over time, as we kept feeding him, he became comfortable around us. Eventually, he let us pet him. He became so comfortable that he’d jump up on my lap, demanding attention whenever I was sitting on the patio reading or writing. We grew to love the little guy.

Last year Chippy’s health began to fail. As he grew weaker, another chipmunk tried to gain access to the nuts. They didn’t share. Chippy got the better of the intruder at first, but he weakened. Then the intruder kept Chippy from getting to the nuts. At that point, I intervened, using a squirt gun to discourage the intruder whenever he popped his head over the patio footwall. I called the intruder Rogue Chippy and kept him away from Chippy’s food supply whenever I could.

During the winter, I saw Chippy one last time. I put seeds on the snow near his burrow and he collected them. A week or so later, I put out seeds again, but they just rotted there. Chippy didn’t show up last spring. We knew what that meant. Rest in peace, Chippy.

Early this summer, Rogue Chippy showed up. I knew it was him by the way he popped his head over the patio footwall in the exact same manner, in the exact same place where I’d put out food for Chippy the previous year. When I told Judy, she said: “We aren’t going to feed any more chipmunks.” I agreed, mostly because I didn’t like the way Rogue Chippy had treated Chippy the following year. Yes, I held a grudge against a chipmunk.

Rogue Chippy kept coming around. A couple weeks ago, I asked Judy: “Why aren’t we feeding chipmunks anymore?” We both pondered that for a while, then started putting out seeds for him. Judy thought he needed a better name, so she asked folks on Facebook to suggest one. We settled on Walnut.

So now we’re putting seeds out for Walnut. He stuffs his cheeks full of them whenever he can. That said, he’s still very skittish around us. No petting Walnut the way we used to pet Chippy. He’s a wild animal, after all.

Tags: backyard nature, chipmunks, feeding wild animals, wildness