LOVING THE REAL WEST is not always easy. Read Joe Wilkin's article "Growing Up Hard" in Orion and he'll have you pondering the nature of this land and the culture of its people.
"OUT IN THE BIG DRY, we had to kill to live," he begins.
"Come October, we'd herd a yearling lamb into the west pen, throw it some good flakes of alfalfa hay. It'd be grass-fat by then, nearly tame, just chewing, and looking around, and chewing. My father, his black hair bright and wild in the early winter light, would put the rifle barrel in its soft ear and pull the trigger. We were nearly two hours away from the nearest supermarket."
Wilkin's article isn't just about the hard reality that nothing lives that something does not die; it's also about our failure to value the land. "Imagine everything you love of the world taken from you. Now imagine it being taken from your child. It was all about the land. We didn't do right by it."
Wilkins is quick to point out that before ranchers lost the land, the Cheyenne and Crow and Lakota and hundreds of other tribes were forced from their ancestral lands. "There is a kind of awful and ready reverence that is some kin to fear but is not fear," he writes. "It is when we understand the blood drying on our hands, the package of hand-wrapped meat we pull from the freezer. It is when we recognize how stories fail us and how stories save us. It is when we have heard them both and tell, in the moment of our greatest need, the story that will save us."
WHAT STORY WILL SAVE YOU? What stories do you tell to make sense of your world? Sometimes I tell the story of the first time my children and I held a deer's heart in our hand, and of frying the deer's tenderloins for supper that night. Loving the animal who grazed on our meadow that summer, and who fed us through the winter, is part of my real West. Sometimes living on the land was hard. But mostly, it was a blessing.
Joe Wilkin's article, a finalist for the 2010 National Magazine Award, appeared in the September/October 2009 issue of Orion magazine.
A copy of my essay, "Deerstalking: Contemplating an Old Tradition" (which first appeared in THE HUNTER issue of Parabola magazine) also appears in my Wyoming memoir, In Search of Kinship. |
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 I first met Dan Flores several years ago when we were both presenters at the Writing the West Conference in Gunnison, Colorado. He had a bit of a Texas/Kentucky drawl, but I didn't hold that against him. Dan lives and teaches in western Montana, but also calls the high desert country of New Mexico home.
Copies of his newest book, Visions of the Big Sky, just arrived at his home in Montana. Dan includes 140 illustrations in the book, many of which "demonstrate the preponderance of Indians and wilderness in the region's art and explore the work of individuals as diverse as Edward Sheriff Curtis and Ansel Adams."
When I asked him about writing the book, he said, "It took me exactly the same stretch of time from start to finish, as it has taken me to build my house and place in the Bitterroot Valley -- or 15 years, 1995 to 2010 for both. And each was about the same amount of work."
 A 15-year project might discourage most of us from attempting either endeavor, but what the University of Oklahoma Press says about the book puts Dan's efforts in perspective:
"From the Wind River Range to the Canadian border, the northern Rocky Mountain West is an outsized land of stunning dimensions and emotive power. In Visions of the Big Sky, Dan Flores revisits the Northern Rockies artistic tradition to explore its diversity and richness. In his essays about the artists, photographers, and thematic historical imagery of the region, he blends art and cultural history with personal reflection to assess the formation of the region's character."
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FEATURED QUOTE: To be a writer is like being a river. It is to carry the life force within you, the green-giving water that rises from the heart, that flows freely with its cargo of images, and in the flowing reflects the shapes and shadows of the world around it. Where and what are your rivers? Look back, look long, look deep. Discover them again. You will need them always. You will know the first one best, and it will be related to all others in your lifetime. ~ Peggy Simson Curry, Wyoming's First Poet Laureate
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 FEATURED RETREAT
August 31 - September 5, 2010
Create Yourself Anew!
On this unique 5-day River Writing & Sculpting Journey for Women
Moab, Utah. A 5-day catered river trip on the Colorado River through beautiful Westwater Canyon. Features renowned Santa Clara Pueblo artists and writers ROXANNE SWENTZELL and ROSE B. SIMPSON as Page's special guests. This women-only trip explores sculpting (with river mud!) and writing (with river journals!) as complimentary forms of expressions. No rafting, writing, or sculpting experience necessary.
 This special trip will explore writing and sculpting as complementary forms of creative expression. Whether journaling or writing professionally, an established artist or just beginning, the natural world unleashes powerful creative energy. Personal writing and sculpting time is woven into the moments between floating down the Colorado River, hiking at your leisure, or relaxing on shore. Professionally outfitted by Sheri Griffith Expeditions, "Adventures with a touch of class." Voted Utah's Best of 2009!
 Although this is not a workshop, creative discussions about sculpting and writing will take place at the river's edge and continue throughout the day, ending with readings under the stars. "Women rediscover a unique part of ourselves in the natural world," Page says, "and we inspire each other in uniquely feminine ways."
 This 5-day River Journey Includes:
Five unique days with Roxanne and Rose
Time for writing, rafting, hiking, sculpting, and visiting
Meditative alone time
Optional one-on-one writing consultations with Page
Enough civilization to be comfortable in nature
Professional women guides on every raft
Tents, sleeping bags, pads, writing journals, clay
All meals prepared for you ~ fresh and healthy
Time for floating, swimming, and optional mud baths!
Dates: August 31 - Sept 5, 2010 Depart from: Moab, Utah Cost: $1,299.00
MORE INFORMATION
"I can't begin to tell you how much this trip meant to me - how transformational it was. Your wise and gentle spirit created the space for an amazing experience. I am in awe of the guides. I am beyond awe of Roxanne and Rose..." - Bette, 2009 trip
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 2010 Spring Sweetgrass Seminar Series
Whether you're a writer, an artist, or an entrepreneur, a deeper connection with nature will set you on a more meaningful path.
What does it mean to be wild?
How has domestication affected animals, humans and the land?
How does Nature enhance our creativity?
This series of three progressive get-togethers at Mt. Vernon Country Club (20 minutes from Denver, Colorado) will explore these questions, and more, through literature, journaling, hiking, and a field trip to attend the Denver screening of the award-winning documentary SWEETGRASS
 We will also be using Craig Child's collection of stories The Animal Dialogues to guide us.
You may sign up for the entire series, or for a single event.
Click HERE for complete NEWS FLASH details and downloadable Pdf.
Dates: April 17, May 14, May 15, 2010
How Wild is Your Creative Side?
Questions? Phone Page (303) 842-7360 or page@pagelambert.com | |
Visions of the Big Sky
