Shaking Things Up

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.”

For me, with the onset of cooler weather, and after the brain-fuzz of summer, I feel the urge to NOT do what I’ve always done.

However, what changes to make depends on the different destination and consequences one wants, I suppose.

I had quite a few opportunities yesterday at the Land Trust event to speak with folks from Tech, Blacksburg and Christiansburg, Giles county, Galax and elsewhere about the possibility of speaking to groups in those places. Bouncing ideas off other folks is helpful–you see your own reflection in ways that solitary brainstorming will not show you.

In some cases, tomorrow’s efforts would involve doing what I’ve always done–for a much wider audience, I hope. In other cases, I’d like to get–and offer–something different. While I’ve been incorporating the photography more and more into what I do, I need to take the next step.

I won’t bore both of you with the details–and there aren’t many yet. But fall is shaking me up–in a good way now (even though the back pain episode that elicited last week’s lament is still with me)–and we’ll see where this leads.

The possibility of “preaching” on stewardship from the pulpit of a Unitarian church and the notion of teaching classes in nature writing both came up in conversation yesterday. Interesting!

The photo-notecards (what’s left of my dwindling stock) sold well, so maybe I need to consider ramping that back up again, with a few new sets over the winter?

And just before leaving Mt. Lake Hotel, I ran upstairs to get a newspaper (the Roanoke Times published my op-ed piece!) and somebody called my name. It was Leonard Atkins, author of many books related to the Appalachian Trail. He was conducting a several-day-long “class” for an “*elderhostel” group that included field trips to explore local natural history. Now there’s something different. Wonder if I might do that? What a fortuitous crossing of paths. The future is full of possibilities!

*It’s not just ME changing. Elderhostel has changed its name (and its target participants) recently–twice, actually–and is now called the Road Scholar program. Check it out.