Costa Rica is where I became an ecologist. It is the foundation and the guiding light of inspiration that propelled me into this world of ecology, and I have two people principally to thank for this: Dr. Karen Masters (prolific orchidology conservationist) and Dr. Alan Masters (masterful lepidopterist/aka butterfly guru). They were my instructors on a study abroad educational exchange program that brought me to Costa Rica during February thru May of 2007. This is where I feel I truly first met the world that I had been dreaming of, feeling inside myself, and envisioning through lifelong and childhood influences such as the Emerald Forest, the Trials of Life, National Geographic, and Ranger Rick, among others.
In Costa Rica, my childhood envisioning and imaginative realms became my everyday surroundings and waking life. I became immersed in a wonderland of sights, smells, tastes, sounds, and textures rich with sensation and inspiration, and deeply profound in wholesome and spiritual resonance. There was a depth and richness to every experience; every blue morpho butterfly that drunkenly drifted a few meters above the forest floor, each Anole lizard that flashed its dewlap and displayed its sexually selective pushup positioning, and the crisp cloud forest showers seemed to be more of a misty cloud precipitating in place than a rain "fall". Every star lit night spent basking in the glory of the cosmic glitter raining down its radiance upon us as we drifted off to sleep in our tents with the sounds of the glass frogs and katydids singing sweetly made me feel alive like never before. I felt truly a part of something bigger than myself, being held and nourished by the supple moss, mycelia, and leaf litter, humbly honoring the abundance around me as a minuscule and modest member of the ecosystem, in the domain of the prowling puma and the titanic, towering trees.
This is but a tiny glimpse into the world that embraced me, the people, the plants, the animals, the landscapes, the biodiversity, and the immense glory and awe that nourished and reawakened my spirit after years of struggling to find myself within "the urban jungle" of mainstream, midwestern, university culture...
