Kathy O’Rourke of Shelburne Falls shares wisdom, art, flights of fancy and much more in “What I’ve Seen.” This collection of essays and poems looks back on her years as a park ranger and naturalist in the 1990s.
O’Rourke explains in her introduction that she chose this path in her early 40s after working at a number of different jobs, including nursing, and raising two sons.
“Now where was I when I was 19? What were my dreams?” she recalls asking herself. “The question gnawed at me, and soon the answer unfolded clearly and easily. There is a certain magic that leads us along when we ask the right question.”
She earned a certificate from Greenfield Community College’s Outdoor Leadership Program and set her heart on becoming a ranger with the National Park Service. By dint of hard work and determination, she was able to realize her dream of working in a variety of natural environments all over the country.
In between stints as a park ranger, wanting to be a little closer to home, she spent several summers atop Mount Greylock, living in a tent and working as a naturalist for the Appalachian Mountain Club.
She told me recently by telephone that the club had never had a naturalist live alone in a tent and that her superiors were skeptical about the idea. “That’s what I want to do,” she informed them. “I’m going to be with people all day. I need my own housing.”
“It’s like a dream that I think a lot of us have, to live in a tepee or a tent for the summer,” she added.
When she decided to put together this book a few years ago, she consulted letters her mother and a friend had kept from her travels as well as journals in which she wrote over the years.
Her short essays and poems help the reader see nature as O’Rourke herself does — with respect, awe, a gentle attitude and a sense of humor. She writes of storms and fires; of animals she has encountered; of her feelings of freedom, wonder, peace and love in the wild.
Charming and insightful, her book is ideal to put on the bedside table in your guest room — if you don’t mind losing it to guests who fall in love with it.
“What I’ve Seen” is available at local libraries and bookstores as well as at Amazon.com. Kathy O’Rourke will discuss the book and sign copies on Thursday, April 7, at 6:30 p.m. at Boswell’s Books in Shelburne Falls. For more details, call the store at 625-9362.
Tinky Weisblat is the author of “The Pudding Hollow Cookbook” and “Pulling Taffy.” Visit her website:
TinkyCooks.com