by mary1988 | Dec 15, 2015 | 2015
I am drawn to the snippets of color on the beach like a hummingbird flitting about a summer’s garden. Balloon ribbons. Straws. Shot gun wads. Bottles. Pieces of plastic. In my quest to return the shore to its natural state, I zigzag across the sand, stuffing each...
by mary1988 | Nov 4, 2015 | 2015
It is Lee Botts, a woman in her mid-eighties with eyes that sparkle when she speaks of the coast of northern Indiana, who reminds me passion and collaboration are two sides of the same coin. I had not met Lee when I took my first step on a path winding through a marsh...
by mary1988 | Oct 22, 2015 | 2015
Transforming the former golf course back to its natural state was one of the 2,500 projects conducted under the first phase of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). Natural wetlands and floodplains once lining the Macatawa River were restored. Turf grass was...
by mary1988 | Sep 1, 2015 | 2015
A gust of wind, invisible save its shadow, sweeps across Lake Michigan, darkening a surface already heaving from the storm. Glancing to my side, I see the next wave bearing down on us, towering over our forty-foot sailboat. In seconds, it rolls underneath the hull,...
by mary1988 | Aug 5, 2015 | 2015
2007 fourth-graders at Quince Elementary School in Zeeland, Michigan Gusting over fifteen knots, the wind knocks the tops off the distant rollers, creating slivers of silver that sparkle under the hot, August sun. Waves crash wildly against a nearby sandbar, frothing...
by mary1988 | Jul 21, 2015 | 2015
I wanted to learn to read the wind, to harness its power and feel the surge of the boat slicing through the waves. I wanted the exhilaration of being one with nature. Only now do I realize each sailing lesson is like a Petoskey stone, a rare treasure to be pulled from...
