A BIRTHDAY CARD FOR MY CURIOUS DAUGHTER

 

A series of essays….

THE JOY OF GIVING IS VERY SATISFYING — WHETHER IN
SMALL BOXES OR LARGE LIFE LESSONS

….as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

Blessed are the curious, for they shall have adventures. A remarkably true statement as far as I am concerned, believing in the fact that the entire world is our oyster which means that we can achieve anything we wish in life or go anywhere because we have the opportunity or ability to do so. Often, having the means to do so can be the challenging factor, but if there is a will—there is always a way. Being inventive, patient, and true to your commitment, in my personal experience, will get you anywhere you’d like to go!

But remember…life can become complicated. Pace yourself. You will know when it is the right time for everything to take place.

When we do arrive at our particular destination with so many adventures to follow, it is not uncommon to feel the spirit of this place embrace us, guide us, and watch over us as we open-up to all of the possibilities ahead. 

After achieving a higher education at Michigan State University and committing to a lifelong relationship with the love of my life, we brought our first daughter into this world when we were twenty-five years old. Alexandria (Ali) was everything and more than we expected to feel and experience from being first-time parents. Partially due to the fact that Dan held a degree in Building Construction Management, we were able to build our first home, a small, gray-sided Cape Cod, in Eaton Rapids, Michigan, and bring our newborn home to her nursery with all of the trimmings and comforts we could provide for her.

By the time Ali turned three, we decided to fly, as a family, to Chicago for a long weekend and provide her with this brief experience of flying and traveling, even if it was only between Lansing and the Windy City! She enjoyed every minute of it, too. And, everyone fell in love with this adorable little blondie with the perpetual smile on her face. 

We visited museums, walked along North Michigan Avenue (the Magnificent Mile), introduced her to that side of Lake Michigan in nearly every way possible before boarding the plane back to Lansing. 

I won’t kid myself…that adventure was as much for our benefit as it was for hers. It was the beginning of her experience to ‘all things possible’ and initially opened up Ali’s vein of curiosity, the potential for doing more as she grew older, and helped to create a need and desire for travel that would last her a lifetime of memories and joy! And, as I recall, shopping at Water Tower Place with an elongated adventure through FAO Schwarz, the iconic toy store for kids of all ages, was well worth the trip to Chicago.

Both of our daughters never hesitated to board a flight, drive anywhere in a car, ride in a train, or jump on a boat in order to enjoy a new adventure. Now that they both have families of their own, the spirit of adventure holds even higher stakes as they have introduced their children to the amazing world of travel and discovery. I am so proud that the opportunity to travel the world exists for all of them. When I was quite young, traveling to different places and experiencing new cultures only existed through books and a fertile imagination. But, there was plenty of time to plan some of my future itineraries and be able to watch them unfold before me when the time was right.

Today, our beautiful daughter, wife, and mother, Alexandria, celebrates another birthday. We could not be more proud of her and all of her accomplishments throughout the years. Yes, she is an ambitious and successful career women who also knows how to maintain a fairly smooth and healthy balance between work and the well-being of her family of four. And, the wonderful part is that she married someone who had devoted his post college life to backpacking around and discovering Europe before moving down to the Orlando area (Walt Disney World) to work at Disney’s Wide World of Sports where Eric and Ali first met.

So, blessed are the curious, blessed are the young at heart no matter how old they are, blessed are those who deliberately choose to become enlightened both physically and mentally by immersing themselves into a different culture and land. And, blessed are the poets and philosophers who understand that ‘the human body was never meant for sitting behind desks or walking paved streets, or maneuvering tight corners,’ to paraphrase John O’Donahue — Irish Poet & Philosopher.

John O’Donahue said, When longing dies, creativity ceases. The arduous task of being a human is to balance longing and belonging so that they work with and against each other to ensure that all the potential and gifts that sleep in the clay of the heart may be awakened and realized in this one life.

Blessed are those who encourage others to take the forest path and contemplate the trees and birdsong. Blessed are those who feel the sand between their toes and reflect upon  the waves rolling in off the surface of the ocean. And, blessed are those who mentor the young in the natural beauty that exists in this world and teaches them to seek it out, wherever they may travel. May the young who listen intently to them learn to pass this wisdom down to others as they themselves grow and mature.

Well, Ali, I do believe that Dad and I did our very best while you were young and most impressionable. May your curiosity always be kept alive and strong and take you places you’ve only dreamed about. Today, on your Special Day, I wish you Peace, Joy, Good Health, Happiness, and more Love than you’ve ever believed possible! Happy Birthday my Beautiful Daughter. Stay kind. Remain curious, and always enjoy life to the fullest.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALI!!!

Copyright © 2023 by Jacqueline E Hughes 

All rights reserved

 

"UBER-URBAN COYOTES"

A series of essays.....





Photo Courtesy Living Green Magazine: Coyote In Chicago

.....as seen through my eyes!



By: Jacqueline E. Hughes


Whenever I leave the house, especially this time of year in Florida, I carry my trusty umbrella with me. I reason that it will either protect me from the rain or deter precipitation for the duration of my outside activities. I am now discovering that another weapon must be added to my arsenal....a golf club or walking stick.....and, for a very good reason!

Fortunately, I do play golf and I own several 'walking sticks' for climbing up in the Great Smoky Mountains. So, I am good to go. Well, on second thought, my sturdy umbrella might be just enough to fend off an approaching coyote thus saving my other arm for waving wildly in the air out of unmitigated fear!

Yes, the coyote population is alive and strong and has been increasing within the 'urban jungles' more than ever lately.



Coyote In An Urban Setting

To better realize what is happening within the coyote population, you must get to know more about the coyote himself. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, coyotes are medium-sized mammals in the same family as dogs, wolves and foxes. Coyotes are highly adaptable and smart. They may live in wooded or other habitats in your neighborhood. They are opportunistic and generalist feeders who are most active at dawn and dusk but can be seen almost anytime during the day or night. They have strong family bonds and pairs typically mate for life.

Whether we like it or not, the coyote has become our neighbor no matter where we live. Experts say that in Cook County Illinois, home of The Windy City, coyotes inhabit virtually every available territory in the county, so most of us have a coyote neighbor, even if we haven't seen it yet. That's comforting....!

With more and more coyotes willing to mate and survive within the cemented urban jungle of the inner city, they are making the city their home and quickly learning to adapt right alongside the human inhabitants. One of the worst things we can do is feed them, and we do this inadvertently by leaving food outside for our own  pets. Stanley D. Gehrt is an assistant professor of environmental and natural resources at Ohio State University and is carrying on a multi-year study of coyote behavior in urban Chicago. Even though his research is concentrated in Chicago, the results likely apply to most major metropolitan areas in North America, he explains.

This study was originally slated to last for only one year! It has been going on now for almost fifteen years.

Stanley Gehrt Holds Female Captured in Chicago Metro Area
Photo Courtesy of Stanley Gehrt

"We couldn't find an area in Chicago where there weren't coyotes," Gehrt said. "They've learned to exploit all parts of their landscape. Nine million people live in the greater Chicago area and we didn't think very many coyotes could thrive in such a highly urbanized area. We also thought that the few animals that were causing problems were probably used to living around people."

Today, Gehrt and his team estimate that anywhere from several hundred upwards to two-thousand coyotes live among the parks, apartment and commercial buildings and industrial parks within the greater Chicago area.

Courtesy: Chicago Magazine ~ Coyote On Metro Tracks

Gehrt and his colleagues have placed GPS tracker collars on several of the coyotes in the Windy City and have found that even under cover of darkness, urban coyotes still have to dodge people and vehicles.....and the GPS data reveal they do it deftly. Chicago coyotes have learned to negotiate roads, sidewalks, and railroads usually without being seen or hit, despite tremendous traffic volume.

My husband has recently returned from Michigan after visiting with our children and grandchildren who live in the southwest corner of the state and just across Lake Michigan from the Chicago area. When he takes these 'solo' trips up to see the kids, I am usually entertained by several cute stories about what they did and where they visited during their long weekend together upon his return. This particular story, however, still finds me with sweaty palms and shaking with fear of the unknown....

Our son-in-law, Matt, has been nicknamed "The Great White Hunter" and for good reason.  Given his prolific prowess with rifle, bow and arrow, and fishing in the deep blue depths of the chilly Lake Michigan waters, in one season alone, Matt could provide a small town with enough food to last the entire winter. Hunting and fishing are definitely his great passions in life.

In addition, Matt is a good father and loves his three children, Lydia and the twins, Brendan and Kerrington, very much!

"Did you see it? Did you see it? It walked past me not more than thirty seconds ago!" exclaimed our son-in-law as he came flying out of the sliding glass door and into the backyard nearly out of breath with excitement and a healthy dose of fear in his eyes.

"It came through your neighbor's side yard right between the two houses and walked right down the side of the driveway! At first I thought it was a neighborhood dog or something and then I got a closer look at it and knew...."


Matt and Lydia

Matt had been watching Lydia, his seven-year-old daughter, ride her scooter around the long, wide driveway of the house which sits in a highly populated subdivision in Portage, Michigan. He had been sitting on the front porch as the afternoon sun poured down all around them on this glorious spring day. He looked up just in time to see what he initially believed to be a dog walking out from the side yard of our oldest daughter's house.

"It was too long and narrow to be a dog," Matt said. "Its fur was natty and matted down. Instinct told me it was a coyote! It walked not more than a foot away from Lydia, crossed the street and then ran into the backyard of the neighbor's house across the road. I don't know exactly where it's at right now!"

The four adults stood on the back patio wide-eyed and awestruck. Even the "Great White Hunter" was capable of being totally blown-away by the sight of a wild animal walking between himself and his daughter in such an inhabited environment in broad daylight!

Dan told me this had all transpired in the matter a few short moments and Matt's impressive figure remained silhouetted in the doorway when suddenly a mother's instinct or her 'voice of reason' loudly kicked into gear and inquired, "So, Matt.....where is Lydia right now??"

Dan said you never saw so many adults fly through the house and out into the front yard as swiftly as they did at that moment!

Lydia was still standing alone at the end of the driveway, scooter in hand, with her eyes drifting off into the shadowy yard of the people who live across the street. I believe she knew it wasn't a dog.

Among the skyscrapers of downtown Chicago and the busy Lake Shore Drive to the open spaces and woods that still surround the greater Orlando, Florida area to a large and densely populated subdivision in Portage, Michigan.....these versatile carnivores, native to Middle America, roam wild and free. The coyotes are "pushing their ecological envelope," said Stan Gehrt. "The coyotes have altered their natural behavior to accommodate living in close quarters with people."



Florida Wildlife Officials
Attempt to Increase Awareness

From here on out I think it's going to be extremely difficult to just let small children (grandchildren?) out to play in the yard without supervision. I know that I would certainly rather be safe than sorry.

If coyotes have altered their natural behavior to accommodate living in close proximity with people like in Chicago as Stanley Gehrt claims, shall we assume that Matt's coyote has, as well? Or not....?!  No matter how we look at this, now or in the future, I think it's highly important to learn to never underestimate the basic instincts of the coyote.

Photo: CBS Chicago Files ~ Coyote Wedged in Bumper

Copyright © 2015 by Jacqueline E. Hughes
All rights reserved

WHO ARE YOU CARL SANDBURG?

 A series of essays.....

A TRUE LOVE STORY: CARL AND LILIAN SANDBURG 
Photographed by Edward Steichen, Brother of Lilian 

.....From a letter to his wife in 1908:

" I would rather be a poem like you than write poems.  I would rather embody the big things as you do than carve or paint or write them.  You inspire art....and that's living!"





.....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E. Hughes



Recently, a thirty-something and I were discussing my travels up to North Carolina a few weeks back when she asked me, "Now, exactly who is Carl Sandburg?  I know I've heard of him in school but, I can't place who he is or what he's done?!?"

Did I bristle at this lack of recall?  Well, maybe just a little.  The truth is.....the question had been posed and I was more than willing to fill-in the blanks!

It all began when we saw, yet again, along Highway 26, just south of Hendersonville, North Carolina, the sign reading, 'Carl Sandburg Home, National Historic Site.'  "Please tell me why we see this sign going up to Maggie Valley but never take the time to stop?" I seriously asked my husband.  "I truthfully don't know," Dan replied.  "Maybe we will on the way back home this Sunday if we leave right after breakfast."  Sounded good to me!

Carl Sandburg

Robert Frost

Growing-up learning to love literature and poetry as much as I do, two tousled, gray-haired gentlemen, authors by trade, have always guided me down a path of awakening and simple joy via their passion and love of the written word.  Thinking back now, I believe that Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg epitomized the quintessential 'Grandfather' figure for me as I was voraciously reading, reading, reading everything written by them in order to satiate my lust for poetry and prose. 

Both men were still alive in my early lifetime and each worked hard as a teacher and a journalist, a farmer and a factory worker, as they struggled to make ends meet, and continued to write and contribute their works to the world for all to enjoy.  Physically, I believe, these distinguished men resembled one another as the years progressed giving them an uncanny feeling of 'brothers' in a literal and symbolical sense. 

Seven Pulitzer Prize awards are shared by these 'Literary Brothers' with Robert Lee Frost earning four within the years 1924 to 1943 for his poetry collections.  Carl August Sandburg achieved three awards from 1919 to 1951.  Two Pulitzers were awarded for his collections of poetry, The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg and Corn Huskers.  In 1940 he won the Pulitzer Prize for History for his biography of Abraham Lincoln entitled (Abraham Lincoln: The War Years).

A strong Michigan connection can be attributed to both men, as well. In 1921 Frost accepted a fellowship teaching post at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he resided until 1927 when he returned to teach at Amherst. While teaching at the University of Michigan, he was awarded a lifetime appointment at the University as a Fellow in Letters.  The Robert Frost Ann Arbor home was purchased by The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan and relocated to the museum's Greenfield Village site for public tours. 

Stollaway Cottage in Harbert, Michigan

Carl Sandburg and his wife, Lilian Steichen, purchased a home in Harbert, Michigan, located in Berrien County, where they lived with their three daughters, Margaret, Helga and Janet along the beautiful Lake Michigan shoreline.  Carl Sandburg Library first opened in Livonia, Michigan, on December 10, 1961. The name was recommended by the Library Commission as an example of an American author representing the best of literature of the Midwest. Carl Sandburg had taught at the University of Michigan for a time.




Sandburg Family

Eventually, the Sandburg family claimed that the Midwest's cold winter temps and the lack of owning enough property for Lilian to raise her prize-winning milk goats for the making and selling of domestic goat cheese brought them to a small slice of heaven in the North Carolina town of Flat Rock. 

Connemara With Family Home Off In The Distance

Having just parked the car and now luxuriating in the early October sunshine of this beautiful late Sunday morning, we walked down the small, stone path leading to the Sandburg home.  Affectionately called 'Connemara' due to the rolling green hills surrounding the main structures, there were ponds, trails and wide-open spaces scattered among the over two-hundred acre estate.  After crossing a bridge spanning a large pond, we enjoyed a short, tree-lined walk up to the main house.  "Shall we take the half-an-hour tour of the house?" I asked, knowing that our time was limited.  "I think we can do it," my husband graciously replied.  He knew this meant so much to me.




Our Docent, James

Our docent, James, was a treasure, making us laugh, answering our questions and enabling us to immerse ourselves in the amazing history behind the four walls, as well as intimately discovering the colorful people who lived, loved and thrived within them.  He allowed our little group to see and understand that real people had celebrated birthdays and holidays here; read the newspaper while sipping their coffee; laughed and cried in good times and bad.  When you are asked to 'Support America's National Parks,' people like James make it easy to do so!






Mishmash Room

Looking into one of the upstairs rooms, I discovered a mishmash of stacked boxes, filled bookshelves living on the floor and furniture pieces in disarray.  James told us that even though the family slept in the remaining four bedrooms upstairs, this room still housed most of the Michigan items brought here from their home in Harbert that Lilian failed to unpack.  "You wouldn't find a room like this at Biltmore," he said, grinning at me.  "This place, for now, is the 'real deal.'  You are among the final few to see this place as it exactly was when the Sandburg family resided here.  Next month it will be completely packed-up and everything stored in order to allow workmen to repair and restore the structure.  We are looking at reopening mid-2015, if we're lucky."

I knew it.....I knew it!  This visit was meant to be! 






This is where he wrote....!!!!!

Enjoying the luxury of taking pictures in every room of the house, I was able to capture its ageless spirit!  We stood one thin, swagging rope line away from everything!  I heard the giddy girl I felt like that day saying things like, "He sat on that chair and typed on those keys!" and, "This is the guitar and piano he composed his music on!" or, running my hand gently along the multitude of books on shelves in any given room in the house, "These are the volumes he collected and read!"  The essence of his being infused within the hardwoods of each floorboard he walked on seeped up and into my soul and enlightened me with each step I took.  I was truly a writer in a 'candy store' of endless possibilities, hopes and dreams.



Sandburg Formal Living Room



Our small group crowded into one of the last rooms we were to learn about on our tour that day.  Located on the ground floor and incorporating a beautiful bay window seating area and a lavender area rug sprinkled with a Spring flower motif, was the room Carl Sandburg had passed away in.  The year was 1967, July 22 to be exact.  He had lived 89 years among us and 'represented the best of literature of the Midwest,'......of the world, in my lifetime.  It was the summer between my junior and senior year of high school.  I stood in this room a few extra minutes letting everything sink in.

Lilian's Handbag

Books Everywhere!

"Thank you for finally stopping in Flat Rock," I told Dan as we climbed back into our car for the seven hour drive to Orlando.  "Wouldn't have missed it for the world, Kiddo!" he said smiling at me. 

Doing a bit of research on the Sandburg cottage located in Harbert, Michigan, I discovered that the family lived there from 1928 until 1945.  During their time in this beautiful home overlooking Lake Michigan, Sandburg wrote many of his poems, as well as his two-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln. 

Today the Sandburg Cottage is a rental resort called The Stollaway and the listing companies, HomeAway and VRBO (Vacation Rentals by Owner), decidedly omit any mention of the cottage's historical import within the description of the property.  I am sure they have their reasons.  I wonder how many of the world-wide travelers enjoying the property each glorious Michigan summer are aware of its historical and literary importance?! 

Kitchen At Connemara Home

Thank goodness Lilian Sandburg was determined to preserve her husband's legacy and home in Flat Rock, North Carolina!  Following his death in 1967, she gave her support to North Carolina Congressman Roy Taylor and Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall in authorizing the Carl Sandburg Home as a National Park. The park was officially authorized on October 17, 1968 and the property was sold with its contents and cultural resources donated to the park service. The site officially opened in 1974.

Who are you, Carl Sandburg?  This is how I would answer this question:

You are the echo of the typewriter keys clicking away morning, noon and night.....The shadow behind the birch tree high up in the mountains just waiting for the right moment to emerge.....The spirit of my beautiful Chicago, the crystal blue Lake Michigan shoreline and the majestic, purple mist shrouding the Smoky Mountain ridge lines off in the distance.  You are my past, present and future and the Grandfather I wish I had known.  You are my mentor...my guide into the world I find so fascinating and most compelling.

Many thanks to both yourself and Mr. Frost for always being here for me.....





Connemara Mountainside Home

View From Front Porch

Copyright © 2014 by Jacqueline E. Hughes
All rights reserved