Since 1978, I have kept continual 8x11 hardbound, blank-paged nature journals. Now numbering 54, when I finish one, I go buy another one. 

Why have I kept these going for so many years? Since the beginning, they have become my basic way of learning about the nature around me, recording it, making sense of it in relation to my own life. In fact, over the many years these piles of journals at my feet have become my best friends, as I often refer back to them trying to see how my life and the life of nature has changed or not. They are the foundations for my teaching, my own art and illustration work, and for all my books. Take away my nature journals; cut off my arm.

Nature journals are not diaries. Although I may express here personal experiences and worries, they are those we all can share and understand. Having written twelve books since 1979 on “the hows” of drawing and observing nature, I am now opening up to you paths I have found for finding renewed strength, kindness, hope, and mindfulness through days that can be tangled up with worries, doubts, and challenges.

I am older than when I was first asked to write, teach, begin a wee family, begin being curious about nature, and decide to keep my own nature journals. I have experienced more and seen the world shifting and changing perhaps more than when I began my first wide-eyed journals of a young person back in l978. Although I still walk through twelve months of the year, my observations increasingly have included reflections on the meaning of nature and solace, nature and loss, nature and meditation, nature and deep breathing, nature and hope.

As I don't have much of a studio, some people claim my studio is my lap. With my family life and professional work often blending, my nature journal really is my studio, housing the seed beds for all my inspirations. By the end of one journal, binding and pages are rumpled, bruised, and well worn. I keep my current journal and equipment in a bag in the car or right on my work desk, always nearby. Although a professional artist and book writer, my journals are the first examples of my work I show and teach with. They are the witnesses to my heart.