Welcome to the Wild Wind. Summer 2020
IN THIS ISSUE:
- News from Wild Wind
- Nature Notes from Greater Yellowstone Blog
- Words to Ponder
News from Wild Wind
We are well into summer and the daylight is getting a bit shorter. For now, it makes good conditions for watching the Perseid meteor shower!
In the last few newsletters you’ve seen excerpts from Walkin Jim’s manuscript written during, and after, the 1975-1976 Ocean to Ocean walk. Some of these stories bring us back in time when long distance hiking was novel and life was a bit less hectic. Recently, a friend compiled the entire “Searching for the Road Not Taken” story onto one new page in the Walkinjim.com site.
You can read it in the form Jim wrote it, on a manual typewriter as he compiled all of these memories of this fantastic journey. When you have some time, sit back and let yourself become absorbed in the wonder and challenges an adventure like this offers.
Launching Listen to the Earth
Listen to the Earth is a new organization with a long history. They are a merger of Musicians United to Sustain the Environment (MUSE), with Walkin’ Jim Stoltz’s Wild Wind Records, and the environmental audio efforts of Web of Life Audio.
This is another very exciting transition in these times of uncertainty. It has been a long time in the works and some very dedicated individuals have put a lot of time into this to make it happen.
The vision of this new organization with a long history is this:
- Using music as a channel to connect educators, activists, community for the common cause of protecting the environment.
- Continuing to fund Kid for the Wild Scholarships and the opportunity for children to learn, appreciate, and feed their passion for the wild.
- Promoting activism that protects the environment.
- Preserving the story and work of Walkin’ Jim Stoltz and his community.
Go to the website at www.Listentoearth.org and take a look for yourself to see a green song list features songs with environmental lyrics. This eco-song database spans more than six decades, diverse genres, and many countries, and includes both well-known and lesser known singer/songwriters from all walks of life. To prepare this list, several volunteers spent many hours listening to songs and coding each song by environmental topics. Special thanks go to Traci Hickson, Dennis Hendricks, and Brittany Callaham. This has been a labor of love and is very fun to explore. Go to the website to learn more about this resource and how to use it.
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Notes from Greater Yellowstone Blog Nature
As this most unusual year marches on, I find myself thankful every day for the opportunities to get out into nature to calm my mind, feed my sense of wonder and appreciate places that have not been developed and molded by human hands. It gives me time to soak up the beauty of natural cycles and listen to the “silence” that exists in a place without any artificial noise.
Tom Nicholls is a mentor of mine and has been writing a newsletter called “Focus on Nature” from the Nature Education Center they host in Fifield, Wisconsin. Their motto is “Enjoying and Sharing the Beauty and Mysteries of Nature with outstanding photographs and easily understood information to help people enjoy the wonders of our natural world while promoting its preservation”. This was my inspiration to start sharing some of my experiences and observations from this very special place on this planet, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
If you are interested in seeing any of these newsletters go to https://walkinjim.com/blog/.
Words to Ponder
So live each day like you mean it,
Grab hold of each dawn that comes your way
And if its blessings you’re a-countin’,
Try a morning in the mountains,
There ain’t no better way to start the day.
— from “Morning In the Mountains”
Walkin’ Jim Stoltz
If you are interested in Jim’s music, it is
available from these and other retailers:
If you would like to order by mail, send a check or money order to:
Wild Wind Foundation
PO B 866
West Yellowstone, MT 59758-0866
Note new address
