Monday, January 19, 2009

Interview

I had the good fortune to be interviewed by Rachel of the Waxing Moon! Thanks Rachel!
Check out her blog, it's a Yukon blog. It's full of good Northern stuff and fun poetry about her life in the North.
Rachel helped me to copy and paste the following;

One of the wonderful things about the Blogosphere is the way networks and interconnections form spontaneously. To help us all get to know one another, bloggers have been interviewing one another.

My interview follows; then it's my turn to interview any other bloggers who would like to be interviewed by me. :-) Let me know if you'd like to be interviewed by me; the rules are at the bottom of this post. The questions will be unique for each interview.


Here are the instructions if you wish to be interviewed by me:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me".

2. I will respond by e-mailing you five questions (I get to pick the questions)

3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

I will post a list of those who have agreed to an interview so everyone can follow along Now it's my turn to interview any other bloggers who would like to be interviewed by me. :-) I'm going to keep a list up here of the names and blogs of every brave soul who volunteers, so we all can follow along. Please check out their blogs to see the wonderful things they have created!



INTERVIEW
Rachel : 1. I've enjoyed looking at your blogs, especially the photos of plants and birds around us.
What do you think inspires you to photograph the natural world?
me : To me every thing in nature is perfect. I look at anything in the natural world and see pure beauty.
Initially i wasn't going post many photos on my blog, but some friends encouraged me to do so.
I also found that especially the photos of plants and birds, were an amazing learning tool for me.
I can study a bird after it has flown away. I memorize what i learned better after
i go through the whole process of posting it.
And to me knowledge is the key to see. (some philosopher probably did say that better.)

Rachel :2. You describe your occupation as 'keeper of wild places.' Thinking back over your life,
what do you think has called you to become who you are today?
me : Everything! As a toddler i was put down for a nap
between the rows of bare soil on the field my father worked on. It just took me 47 years to see it.

Rachel :3. By what path did you come to live in Mendenhall?
me :That's a long path, i grew up in Holland. Towards the end of that path, with the 3 of us, we choose this property,
because it was cheap enough, out of town, and it felt good. I still remember sitting down on a grassy opening
in the middle of the forest, and we all said, this is it. Exactly on that spot is now our house.

Rachel : 4. If you were to wake up tomorrow and you could choose to have any kind of day,
how would your day go? What is the perfect day for you?
me :Ah! The conditions are right; With the whole family (3) we go to Bear Summit(Haines jct.) Don is skidoing,
Alexander snowboarding and I am climbing up Mnt. Decoeli (Up to here it all has happened before) Today i reach the Top!
And in the far distant, i see shimmering in the sunlight: Mount Logan. Who is the wildest of wild,
both in quantity and quality.

Rachel :5. When you come across a place so wild, so secret, it is as if no human has ever been there before, how do you feel?
me :Well, so that was my mission today (as on many days). I did find a spot like that today. My first feeling is; Hallelujah! How totally blessed am i.
I feel a desire to share and celebrate this joyous moment and kind of do. I don't sit down right away; i look here and there, taking it all in
Finally i relax and just enjoy. Yes i feel such gratitude. Then there is an uncomfortable feeling too. At first i can't put my finger
on it. You know what i think it is: .....I wish i was the Raven, that flies over and sees it all, I wish i were the roots of
that big Spruce, to know what's under the soil, I wish i was that blade of grass, that gets taken by the current,
and knows the flow of the creek. I am bound by my own body.

Thanks for asking Rachel! I didn't know i had this in me!

6 comments:

RachelW said...

Jozien, thank you for doing this! It's great to read about these things.

I'm glad you do post your photographs. They are great for you to learn from, but for others as well, who like to look at them. I think we can never know enough about the natural life around us.

The vision of your toddler self napping between the fieldrows is really magical!

Your description of how you feel in a natural place really moves me. I've imagined being the bird, the rabbit, part of the oneness as well, and I've dreamed of soaring. It's the most freeing and exhilirating thing I've ever experienced; I can only imagine what it would be like if it was real. Yeah, we are bound by our bodies, with our human awkwardness and dull senses. But we are freed by what we can perceive and imagine!

Kat Mortensen said...

It's strange how things emerge when someone else is asking you questions, rather than you asking them of yourself (introspection).
Thank you Rachel, for leading me here, and thank you, Jozien for opening up your thoughts to us. I walked with you in my imagination, to the spot where you placed your home and I snapped those photos of birds and plants in my mind. Like you, I want to examine and gain the knowledge about every detail. I can watch the birds on my back porch for hours!
I envy you and Rachel, the solitude and tranquility and peaceful existences you have.

Kat

Sue said...

That was a beautiful post! I would be glad to be interviewed if you wanted to :) Just let me know.

Anja said...

Hi Jozien
I don't mind being interviewd but I'd like your questions to be answered in pictures if possible. That should give you something to think about!

jozien said...

Thanks Kat, I just spotted a Hoary Red Poll on my bird feeder, the first of the season. I gotto go and check him out, so much for tranquility.:)

Cicero Sings said...

I think that an interview is a good idea and enjoyed reading both the questions posed to you and the answers!