The Edge Effect
My first real connections were with the land and its animals and plants. Growing up on a ranch in a geographically isolated area of the High Plains, gave me this rare opportunity. The opportunity to have the time and space to develop and build observation and reflective functioning skills. Skills stemming from the thousands of small interactions within daily routines. Watching the clouds, the birds and the land was (and still is) a daily morning ritual. It was more than seeing...it was also a feeling. A sense of connection to the wind and the land and a fascination with the edges. The edges seemed to be where all the happening was! The edge between the tree grove and the prairie breaks were where we would most likely run upon the animals. The deer and the coyotes as well as the livestock. If I wanted to go and catch a horse in the trees, I knew they were usually along one of the edges. They would escape to the trees in weat...