Strands of Genius: Wolf Reintroduction, Story in Stone, Dude Ranches
plus my thoughts on: presence and patience
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
Hey friends! Ashley here. I was just offline for a week as I took a road trip from Los Angeles to Atlanta. As Rosie and Faris mentioned Tuesday, I had the pleasure of seeing them en route!
I learned a lot about nature and western establishment while traveling through national parks and thought I’d use this as an opportunity to share some of the fascinating bits of information I gathered. Fascinating to me at least. Maybe you’ll feel the same. Or not. That’s okay.
This week, I’m especially thankful for:
fall colors, Zion, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Arches, Denver brewskies, Kansas City charm, driving through what looked like the latest Taylor Swift Album Noodles & Bishop, Erin & Eric, Rosie & Faris, my PIC for the trip, Hannah.
:: THE LINKS ::
WOLF REINTRODUCTION CHANGES ECOSYSTEM
While on the road, we purchased GyPSy, an app that serves as a tour-guide using map and real time tracking to address sites as you’re driving through the parks. We named him Rufus.
Rufus shared with us some amazing facts about the ecosystem of the parks and how the recent reintroduction of wolves has virtually changed the entire ecosystem of the parks including an increase in beaver populations and vegetation.
Elk prey on the willow stands that beavers need to survive in winters; and the abundance of elk led to a decline in beavers. And beavers are called ecosystem engineers or as Rufus calls them “livers” of the ecosystem.
Wolves prey on elk, so in turn, the beaver population has grown and the “engineers” are back at work. (Yellowstone Park)
A STORY IN STONE
The story of Arches National Park begins nearly 65 million years ago! Water, wind, and erosion are the primary contributors to these insane structures. What’s even wilder is remembering that these masses are impermanent and always changing, as reminded by the fall of the Wall Arch in 2008. While some may fall, most of these arches will stand well beyond our lifetime: a lifetime blessed with an improbable landscape 65 million years in the making. (NPS)
DUDE RANCHES
Few “dude ranches” still exist inside parks, but we were fascinated to learn where the term actually came from. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a “dude” was an urbanite. It’s what western cattle ranchers, a.k.a. cowboys, called big-shot city slickers.
When city dwellers from the East Coast discovered that ranch visits in the wide open West made for great vacations, ranches started hosting them – and eventually charging them for their stays. Ranches that opened up to the tourism business were called guest ranches, or “dude ranches”. (C Lazy U)
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:: WHAT I’M THINKING ABOUT: PATIENCE & PRESENCE ::
I know, I know, how f***ing cliche, but you know what? I’m all about cliches if they get you through the day. Patience and presence have been the words of the year for me, apparently. And I was reminded of these words once again while on the open road, but actually putting them in practice rather than just thinking about them. Mostly in part thanks to limited cell service and a car malfunction out of our control.
Many of us want to control situations, and if there’s anything 2020 has taught me, it’s that we have very little control over things. So how do we manifest through the uncontrollable? I came across this quote and have come back to it time and time again.
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in foreign tongue.”
-Rainer Maria Rilke
Dude is a poet from the 1800s so of course he makes it sound way more eloquent than I would ever be able to express, but what I love is his use of similes. And more specifically, his use of similes to tangible items. Things I can visualize and conceptualize. Somehow associating the unknown to known things makes it feel less scary and less overwhelming.
Patience and presence (P&P as I’m calling them), for me, go hand in hand. To practice one, you must have the other. Patience is a test of the present in a way. And being present is a test of patience.
When we think too far in the future, we forget to enjoy the journey as reminded by one of my favorite professors…
“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”
-Album Dumbledore
And one of my favorite athletes….
“It's not the destination, it's the journey. And if you guys can understand that, then what you'll see happen is you won't accomplish your dreams, your dreams won't come true; something greater will.”
-Kobe Bryant
How can we appreciate what we like and don’t like or want and don’t want if we’re only focused on what we think we want 100% of the time?
So… I’m working to take each day as it comes; and to give myself the grace of getting through what I get through without getting worked up about the things untouched, while being grateful for the lessons (or distractions) learned in each moment (even if it may not be what I want to hear/learn). Easier said than done, of course, but you know, baby steps. P&P, thanks for doing your thing.
:: GRAND TETONS NATIONAL PARK ::
No caption necessary.
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rockON,
faris & rosie & ashley | your friends over at geniussteals.co
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Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.
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