Some things just stick with you. Like the ooze of the salt marsh that seeps between your toes as you traipse through the pickleweed. I don’t think I got it at first. It was hard to walk with pickleweed clinging to my legs and obscuring the braided channels that crisscrossed the marsh. I do remember an exhausting hike back to camp and sinking up to my knee in the organic-rich mud and having to be pulled out. But by the end of the second day I got it, and what had seemed to be only a flat and monotonous landscape transformed itself into something marvelous and wonderful. It takes a different eye to appreciate the beauty of the salt marsh. And I clearly remember feeling like Tom had given me a way of seeing the world and appreciating its beauty that I could not have experienced without his insight, passion and gentle guidance.
It has been many years since I last saw Tom, but that doesn’t mean that I have not thought of the gift he gave me every time I take my classes on a field trip to the salt marshes where we marvel at the ecosystem and admire the physiological fortitude of the Salicornia that can best be experienced by tasting its fleshy stems. My passion for water and wetlands that inspire my teaching all started with ENSP Core Program and specifically that weeklong adventure to the salt marsh on San Pablo Bay. Clearly Tom had a gift and that gift lives on in those whose lives and hearts he touched.
with fond memory,
Robin
I sure remember that Pickleweed - and thinking "we are going to camp here for HOW long??"
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