The Road Less Traveled

Good evening fellow Wild Knights!  It’s been a busy couple weeks, but I have finally moved in to my dorm at Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park  😀   It feels a bit like I fell back into winter once I got here. In Tennessee it was about 75 degrees, and yet here the entire Yellowstone Lake is frozen over. I definitely didn’t mind the sudden onslaught of freezing temperatures, and immediately after my check in I went on an amazing hike through the mountains!

My main reason for coming back to Yellowstone was to treat this place like a kind of training ground. I have different goals that I needed to reach and I needed a place where I could do it without distraction and with 2.2 million acres of nature to inspire me.

First and foremost, I needed to learn how best to take care of myself. Physically and mentally.  For the past couple months my living arrangements have been less than ideal, and my food options even less so. No more!!!!!! I’ve been at Yellowstone for about 3 days now, and every meal has been healthy with tons of nutrients that I’ve been deprived of (thank you Kale ;D). I’ve almost completely removed all sugar from my diet, and started drinking nothing but water. Once the employee gym opens for the season tomorrow, I will have a fantastic work out regime designed to build my body into the shape I want.

I finally have time to work on projects and skills that I have wanted forever. Every day I can practice my Spanish and my drawing, improving steadily and excited for the next breakthrough.  As a spur of the moment decision a few weeks ago, I decided that I would also get my online degree in Wildlife Biology. I felt that to be considered major players in the environmental scene, I needed to formally educate myself on all the things I love.

Alongside my personal goals, I wanted to use this 6 month Yellowstone journey to expand Wild Knights and our network of exceptional individuals.  Millions of people visit the park every year, and I couldn’t think of any better spot to recruit some Knights to help us change the world. Like the best of them, however, we needed to walk the walk.

So with that in mind, to get Wild Knights involved in environmental affairs and add new members, I decided to join the Yellowstone Environmental Stewardship (YES!), which is an environmentalism council that works on sustainability projects throughout the park. My hope is to both help make this place more environmentally friendly and to make connections with people who feel the same about the entire planet. I’ll be posting updates as time goes on about the various green projects going on in the park. Hopefully we can inspire others to make a difference as well 😉

 

To all the Wild Knights out there, I look forward to working with you to change the world.

Tootles for now 😉

~Emrys

I’m Gonna Try Urban Gardening!

So, like most artists from a small town, I’m about to move on to a place with more action. Unlike most artists, I don’t want to live in a city, which sounds counter intuitive, but I’ll explain.

I took a trip with my college choir to NYC and we all had a blast. We also were not used to the polluted air, so half of us were hacking moments before performing in the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. Nothing divine about that . I loved the city outside of that, it was what I was craving: diversity, enough stimulation for a zealous extrovert, a thriving art scene, etc etc. But, with all honesty, I’d never live there unless it was changed. So now I’m looking for cities with a more outdoorsy feel, but I still want to go all the way with my move.

I’m looking to change my lifestyle completely, escape sleeping in past the point of no energy,  STOP eating anything that comes in plastic (I admit my short comings, I haven’t gotten rid of it yet), developing a consistently healthier mindset, doing work that fits my vision and moral standards… I could go on, but I won’t because I instead want to mention what everyone has at their disposal: Imagination. With that priceless tool, we can overcome any obstacle. Let’s take one of my current moving obstacles: I want to eat healthy for myself and the planet. Locally sourced, organic, beautiful food is a great way to get the mind headed in the right direction, but let’s take that a step further. What about growing our own?

“Urban gardening” is a great way of bringing fresh a lot faster and a lot fresher. Who wouldn’t want fresh cilantro for their guacamole? It’s perfect! That and the emissions from our lousy auto beasts will be eaten up by our food while giving you more nutrients at a fraction of the cost it would take to drive that beast on a 45 minute round trip to a grocery store for sub par greenery.

I’m going to leave some inspiration here from TedX speaker and guerrilla gardener Ron Finley, who selflessly created a street side garden in his neighborhood and kept on until he created The Ron Finley Project

Tell me about your gardens! And if you have a great place in mind for an artist who wants to connect with more people in a green environment, let me know, and I’ll totally give you a hug if we meet.

 

-Blaze