Each summer for eight years, I could hardly wait to pack for summer camp. The singing, campfires, canoeing, archery, and crafts fed my soul. After five years as a camper, I became a counselor. I taught sailing, rode horses, walked the dry riverbeds, and guided campers all summer long. 

One summer, while a counselor at Camp Champions in Marble Falls, Texas, I met a man named Hondo Crouch who carved spoons, kept a deer and falcon as pets, and was truly living his true nature. Hondo gathered his friends Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Willie Nelson to jam around the campfire as they wrote the well-known song Luckenbach Texas - Back to the basics of love.

In June 1969, Neil Armstrong dropped off his son, Ricky. In July, an Air Force helicopter arrived to take Ricky home to Houston. Everyone at the camp gathered around to watch a small black-and-white TV as Ricky’s dad made one giant step for man, one giant step for mankind!

I was in the post office mailing a letter halfway around the world to Kathmandu, Nepal, when I noticed that the person next to me was also mailing a letter to Kathmandu. We talked, I showed him some nature photographs, and a few days later I joined his company, Wilderness Travel, to be a guide and photographer co-leading 25-day treks across the Swiss Alps. 

As I look back on my life, I see that when I’m living my truth, amazing things continually open for me. I experienced the beauty of the earth and literally walked away from a life that no longer worked. I walked from the Eiger to the Matterhorn on foot, feeling strong and connected. Next, I was scheduled to lead a trip in Norway, but the trip was cancelled at the last minute. On the way back to St. Louis, my flight stopped in Reykjavik, Iceland. A fellow from the Swiss Alps expedition and I had decided to explore Iceland together, but his plans changed and I could either return to St. Louis in the middle of the hot humid summer or venture out on my own in Iceland. Quite a surprise but definitely part of the bigger plan as I got off the plane for my next adventure.

How do you bring back what you know and make it a part of your everyday life? How do you follow through on the tough decisions? Somehow I mustered up the courage. Upon returning from Iceland, I packed up after eight years in St. Louis. I retraced parts of the Lewis and Clark expedition trail and the Oregon Trail on my journey to Portland. The land was green and the soil fertile and the rain ... well, constant. I again had a choice, take a high-paying job as advertising manager for one of the big multi-national lumber companies or work for minimum wage outdoors in a tree farm in Boring, Oregon. You guessed it—and how delighted I was to work among the trees. It was anything but boring! However, given the wage, I decided that if I was going to eat, I better plant my garden. In the back of my mind, I had an intention to combine business with nature. So one day in 1978, while out in the garden hoeing the beets, an idea popped into my head: Why not combine seeds and greeting cards ... Greeting Seeds! I discovered a young art student who would create the art for the first cards and for many years thereafter. We created greeting cards with seeds, teas, spices, herbs, and other gifts of the Earth inside. The idea took root. Sales climbed each year to top off at 25 million cards sold.

It was one of those days when the winds of life were blowing hard. Deeply questioning “why am I here? What is the purpose of my life? How can I make a difference?” I knew that if I could get outside, my problems would seem smaller and life would seem much greater. I walked along the sidewalk and up to an old cottonwood tree that I had passed by many times. This time, I stopped. I leaned against its bark to ask for advice. It shared with me its beautiful wisdom: “Stand tall and proud... Be content with your natural beauty... go out on a limb!” This simple advice from a tree began to smooth out the complexities and challenges I faced.

The wisdom I received from the tree became the poem “Advice from a Tree,” and that’s how it all started. I included it in my book Poet Tree: The Wilderness I Am. I wanted to share my love of trees with my daughter and to put down in writing what really mattered to me. I created a bookmark, then a postcard, with the poem inscribed. Middlefish, the first store that carried the Advicebookmark and quickly reordered within a week! Pretty soon, we made posters and notepads to sell. It was clear that many people were seeking some wise advice, too.

So, like the “Advice from a River” poem says, “The beauty is in the journey.” This is my journey. One of discovery, choice, intentionality, trust, and gratitude. One of perseverance, giving back, honoring our talents, and looking at the world with UN-ovation as day by day we create the life we imagine. Going beyond the obstacles into possibility. 

A while ago, I sat in a movie theatre as the credits rolled for Into the Wild and tears streamed down my cheeks. It was so much my story—my Iceland journey into nature and into the depths of human nature. Chris McCandless and I both went into the wild, but I returned and he didn’t. It reminds me of the preciousness of it all. The journey continues each day, going into the wilderness and bringing back the wisdom to honor nature, honor myself, and offer a path for others to more fully live their true nature. We all have our story to tell, and our story to live.