POST - "Landscapes" Newsletter

Newsletters

Audrey Rust

You’d think I would have many opportunities to enjoy the fruits of POST’s labor. That I would know every trail, every vista. The truth is,I spend my time at the computer, on the phone and in meetings, just as most businesspeople do. When I’m involved in touring a property for conservation, it’s usually in a vehicle, jumping out only here or there to see something from a different angle. On weekends, there are events, errands, keeping up with friends and family. About six months ago I said, “Enough already. Why am I doing this work? I need to get out on the land.”

That was the inspiration behind the “Half-day Hiking Club.” A semi-retired friend and I gather a small group together every other Wednesday at 7:30 a.m., with a plan to return by noon. From our first hike, at Skyline Open Space Preserve, I knew this was the right thing for me to do. Within half an hour, I had a smile on my face and a deep and growing sense of connection and fulfillment. This wasn’t about athletic achievement, although it certainly is a physical experience. It was about immersing myself in nature. As humans, we’re hard-wired to feel the land’s beauty and see it as life affirming. I wanted to get back in touch with that core, primordial feeling.

After all, I knew it as a kid. I had the good fortune to grow up in a time and place where playing out of doors in woods and fields was the norm. The principal of my elementary school believed children through sixth grade should not do homework and instead enjoy nature and sports. I remember collecting and identifying wildflowers and learning bird songs as assignments. That early exposure tapped into whatever genetic predisposition I have for loving nature, and shaped the adult I would become.

Spiritually, we all own the beautiful open lands protected by POST. Your gifts make their protection possible, so that not only views and habitat and resources are preserved, but the very experience of what it means to be human and alive in the world. These lands are our common bond. It’s likely that when you and I see an open rolling meadow, grass swaying in the breeze, perhaps a few Douglas fir punctuating one of the valleys, with layer after layer of hillsides disappearing into the distance, we both know their beauty and feel the power of the scene. For me it says “freedom,” and gives my soul room to breathe. Perhaps you feel that as well.

The clean morning air. The call of a red-tail hawk. The feel of soft dirt on the trail, and the crunch of fallen leaves as we walk. The smell of morning-damp ground and yerba buena, a sage, coyote brush in the sun. The land speaks to us in so many ways, engaging all the senses. Each hike we go on, I hear myself saying, “This is the best hike ever.” And it is. Thank you for helping to make it so.