Category: The Life Enthusiast Chronicles

What would life even be without the wild? The beautifully real wild. Animals are a big part of my life as they are for many of you out there. These creatures are something for us to marvel at and to learn from. They teach us how to be humble, how to care deeply, and how to coexist. Every time I see an animal, I think…wow. How amazing is it for us all to live together in one place? Pretty damn amazing.

Last month blogger buddy Chris Stocking delivered a deeply enthusiastic message. Often what makes us excited is not a priority in the world, but the vitality of our happiness is rooted in our personal enthusiasm. In my series, The Life Enthusiast Chronicles, fine humans from across the map unveil what makes them passionate about life.

Today I’m overjoyed to show off the always lovely, Kate Johnston of 4am Writer. I hardly know where to begin when it comes to gushing about this gal. We’ve been writer friends for some time, always there for each other through thick and thin. What astounds me about Kate’s writing is her quiet grace. Her intellect, humor, and heart are finely woven throughout her work. I never miss one of her posts, because they are guaranteed to make me feel inspired in some way. She’s quite the Life Enthusiast.

Connect with Kate on Twitter and Facebook.

Without further ado, here is the lovely Kate…

The first stories that captured my imagination were fairy tales. I loved the idea of a world where good trumped evil, magic ruled, and mythical creatures lurked.

But one thing I didn’t like about fairy tales was that wolves were always portrayed as evil characters. It really bothered me, an avid animal lover, that they always got a bad rap in books.

This is when I first started writing. I saw something I wanted to change, and I had the power to do so with story.

I made the wolf the good guy in my own fairy tales. A heroic wolf felt like such the natural order of things that I’m sure I’d have been shocked to know that, in reality, human beings had been pushing the wolf population toward extinction for the past century and more.

In 1926, the last wolf pack had been killed in Yellowstone (though there were ongoing reports of lone wolves). In 1974, the grey wolf had been listed as an endangered species, and in 1975 recovery was mandated under the Endangered Species Act.

Wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1995—20 years after they were first listed as endangered. They have had a hell of a roller coaster ride overcoming the odds.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every single person on this planet fought for something wild? Imagine how much we would save.

I don’t care if it’s a wolf, a river, a flower, or a mollusk. If we all chose one wild thing that mattered to us and fought for it, this world would be a healthier, happier place.

There are some amazing people who have given their lives to wildlife. I would love to meet them all, tell them thank you.

One such woman, Brenda, runs a wolf rescue and education center, Runs with Wolves Sanctuary.

The pure wolves that come to her are usually born in captivity, kept as “pets,” mismanaged and abused, or abandoned. She also takes care of wolf-dogs (half-wolf, half-dog), who were generally kept as pets but ultimately abandoned or mistreated.

Brenda, and others like her, give wolves and wolf-dogs a second chance at life. Maybe these animals can’t exactly live on the wild side like they are meant, but their survival is a clear indication of how much one human being can do to help.

I’m far from being able to run a sanctuary like Runs with Wolves, but I know I can help in other ways. I write about them. I talk about them. I share their stories through stories of my own.

Giving wolves a voice is the least I can do, when they were the ones who first gave me mine.

*A version of this essay is published in Wolf Warriors, The National Wolfwatcher Coalition Charity Anthology.

**For more information on Runs with Wolves sanctuary, please visit rwws.org.

 

Life has this incredible intensity about it sometimes…hell, who am I kidding? All the time. Joy and playfulness are often overshadowed by stress and work, and it can become alarmingly easy to lose sight of what we love about life. In the rush hour of today, it is more important than ever to slow down and come back to ourselves, to appreciate those amazing things that make us stupidly happy.

Last month fellow blogger Sheila Hurst gave us a magnificent boost of positivity with her life enthusiasm insight. At the end of the day, everything is something to be enthusiastic about. In my series, The Life Enthusiast Chronicles, lovely humans from all over the world reveal their most cherished things about life.

Today I’m stoked to bring you my indie author pal, Chris Stocking from Mental Sweatshop. I can’t even remember how Chris and I first connected, but we seem to be each other’s cheerleaders in this thing called writing. He’s a fantastic young writer on the road to awesome. I love the way he unabashedly gushes over his wife, which you all know here, I’m a big sap for things of that nature. His noir book, The Rotten Apple, releases on March 22nd and I will definitely be checking it out!

Connect with Chris on Twitter and Facebook.

Get ’em, Chris…

It’s interesting to think about what makes you excited about life. It’s not a question people often ask.

They don’t ask you on job applications, or even in interviews. No one seems interested in what makes you enjoy life. They’re only interested in what you can do for them, or how you can make them money.

What services can we trade? How can you help me? It doesn’t matter if it’s what you really like to do, as long as I get what I want and you’re able to do it in a way that suits me.

Now, that’s a bit of a cynical point of view I suppose, but true to some extent.

However, we ourselves don’t often think about it. Between keeping up on Facebook and Twitter and social media, working our day jobs, our night jobs, taking care of our families, making sure we’re healthy, school, and hobbies, we don’t often sit down and think: What makes me happy? What gets me enthused, pumped, and excited about life?

In the rush of life, it gets swept under the rug. We have more “important” things to worry about than making sure we’re happy. There are things to get done!

That’s why I’m so glad Britt asked me. Now I have a chance to really figure out what makes me happy. And, you know what, I don’t know if I can nail down one thing specifically, but I’m going to try.

I’m lucky enough to have a pretty good life. I have food to eat, a roof over my head, a loving wife, I finished high school, and I’m able to get a college education. Sure, I’ll be somewhat buried under a small mountain of loans, but the fact that I have the opportunity to further my education makes me better off than a lot of other people in the world.

But, when it comes down to what makes me really, truly happy, it has to be writing.

Yes, I love my wife, and I wouldn’t be where I am without her. Her love for reading has instilled a love of reading in me, and it pushed me to become a writer. To become a published, professional writer.

But, something about writing just makes me happy. The story, the characters, and everything about it. I have so much at my disposal. I have everything at my disposal. I can create worlds and lives. I have the power to change those lives and worlds, either for the better or worse. I am, quite literally, a god. Not that I need to be a god to be happy, but the fact that I can be is almost overwhelming.

I have, at my fingertips, in the depths of my mind, the power to tell a story. The power to move mountains, and the power to alter minds. To affect emotions. To make people fall in love. I have the potential to make people hate, and make people angry or happy or excited or nervous, both characters and readers alike.

If I’ve done my job well, I can instill so much in a person. And that is terrifying. It’s horrifyingly exciting that I have the potential for that. And that gets me excited about life. It gets me excited to get the words on the page and see what I can do. It’s fun, and gratifying, and exciting, and I don’t know what I would do without it.

I don’t know what I’d do without the power of words. Without the power of language.

And that, my friends, is what gets me excited about life.

Life is so endless to me. Just when I think I’ve seen and experienced everything possible, something astounding comes along, and I’m engulfed in its beauty once more. To pause and cherish the people and places we are surrounded by is something we can always do more of. And when we do…it’s damn magical.

Last month Roy from Back on the Rock  shared his love for running, how its physical and meditative benefits made him reconnect with the rhythm of life. In my new series, The Life Enthusiast Chronicles, awesome humans from all over the world discuss what makes them tick.

Today I’m very excited to welcome Sheila Hurst, a gal I met somewhat recently in the bloggerhood, and I bonded with instantly. She has a lovely way of seeing the world, taking each day in stride with humor and appreciation. I can always count on an inspirational read when one of Sheila’s posts pops up in my inbox. Her consistent positivity is a wonderful energy we are all lucky to experience. And, that makes her a wonderful example of a life enthusiast.

Connect with Sheila on Twitter. (You’re sure to have some laughs, as we did with our goat repartee some months back.)

Go for it, Sheila…

I love the friends I’ve found here. In one way or another, they’re always reminding me to appreciate everything.

Britt’s sense of humor and enthusiasm for life is contagious. When she asked what made me enthusiastic about life, my first thought was the ocean. Then the more I thought about it, I realized it’s everything. It just depends on how you look at it.

I guess I’ll try to narrow it down a little.

Sometimes it’s the simple things: a butterfly splash of color, a sunset blazing in the background, wind lifting and rustling the leaves, laughter and music trickling through the air.

Just being outside revives me.

I love watching the seasons change while noticing things like a bud about to bloom or all the colors and patterns held in one leaf. The sound of birds singing after a long winter of silent snow fills my soul with happiness. The feel of the sun on my skin makes me want to soak in everything and let it all become a part of me.

Whenever I think of the universe, it astounds me that we’re all part of something so great. Something that’s in constant motion, always changing, yet somehow stable. It’s chaotic and harmonic and still so mysterious.

Dogs bring me back to Earth and remind me of all the joy that can be found in a leaf pile or a mud puddle or a snowstorm. They always make me laugh with their smiles and licks. They’re so full of love and they’re constantly giving that love away while still managing to overflow with it.

And then there’s people. I’ve been lucky enough to know some truly great ones.

My mom, dad, and brother were the first great ones I got to know. My elementary school, high school, and college friends are scattered everywhere now but when we are able to see each other, it’s always as if no time has passed – even if it’s been years. Someday we’ll all meet in a bar with goats (and believe it or not, there is a place like that in Memphis).

So it’s everything. There’s so much to appreciate.

And the more we think about it all, the more we realize how true that is.

Life is just one of those things we don’t notice sometimes, right? We’re moving along, full speed, and it often passes us by. But the little moments, not the  accomplishments or milestones we reach, are often where the best of life resides. These moments are small, so you have to look hard. But when you catch them, it’s simply awesome.

Last month Letizia from Reading Interrupted stopped us in our busy tracks when she beautifully spoke of something we all genuinely love…books. In my new series, The Life Enthusiast Chronicles, incredible humans from all over the world discuss what makes them tick.

Today I’m stoked to welcome Roy from Back on the Rock, a long-time blogger/author buddy of mine all the way in Jersey (the Channel Islands, not the Jersey Shore).  Roy is just a good dude with heart, and his writing never fails to be insightful.  The way he often shares the magnificence of his home through history, community, and physicality always makes me stop to appreciate the little place I’m lucky to live in. To encourage us to pause and reflect on our surroundings is a very lovely thing. And in my eyes, that makes Roy a bona fide life enthusiast.

Connect with Roy at Back on the Rock on Twitter.

Take it away, Roy…

How can I do Britt’s excellent blog justice? I don’t want to lose her all of her followers! I didn’t realise what a responsibility it can be to guest on someone else’s page. Britt herself has a great joie de vivre and she expresses this not only through her accomplished writing but by living life through her love of physical movement – dance, yoga etc.

Rather later in life I found that the simplest physical activity of all, running, revitalised me as I was about to drift into a lazy, inactive middle age. Sure, I had played team sports all my life – lots of endeavour and limited success. But the time came where I gave up active participation in favour of administration and coaching. And starting to coach young athletes I found myself sadly lacking in physical fitness. I wanted to set an example.

I began to run for fitness. I struggled for weeks to make any progress. It hurt, I hated it, I was about to give up. One evening I drove to the seafront and determined on making one last effort to run 30 minutes non-stop.  I’d managed only 20 minutes up until then. I told myself that the only way I’d do this was to slow down, to go ridiculously slow. And so I did. 76 minutes later I was euphoric, still going, prepared to run for ever that evening. I had to force myself to stop and go home.

Ten years later I’m still running. In the intervening years I’ve completed two marathons and any number of half-marathons, 10ks and other races. I’ve loved the training, the hardship of putting in the miles, seeing my physical fitness improve, times come down.

But more than this, running has done wonders for my well-being in other ways. Britt and many of her followers will be familiar with the benefits of meditation. Out there, pounding out the miles, one’s mind runs free. On the lanes, trails, cliff-paths you get into a rhythm, the rhythm of life. You observe the work of Nature and how she changes week by week. You notice little things, interesting old buildings perhaps, remnants of long-gone railway tracks.

As you run a long road your mind clears, everything falls into place. At least twice during long runs the solutions to seemingly intractable problems have come to me unbidden. I am a better-balanced person than I ever would have been without running.

But now, inevitably, my fitness and times have fallen off a cliff. Age and a fondness for craft beers have caught up. No more marathons for me. But now I am finding equal, perhaps greater pleasure in introducing other adults to running. Maybe first-timers, others returning to fitness after raising a family, those that have tried running before and have fallen by the wayside.

Because I now know some, at least, of the answers. The ‘f’(ast) and ‘s’(peed) words are banned until completion of the beginners’ course. We have a chat and a bit of a laugh. Running ought not to be hard work in the beginning.

And maybe one day some, at least, will go on to experience the very good things that happen to you when you’re a runner.