Some years ago, a prescient author and psychologists wrote that Americans were becoming disconnected from the natural world and from the world of animals. They would, he said, be disenchanted with technology, politics, the decline in faith and spirituality, the rise of greed and corporatism. In order to heal themselves and the world, he said, they would turn to nature and animals to try and heal. I thought of his prediction out taking photos of the natural world around me, and understanding how important it has become to me and my own sense of healing and spirituality.

On this winding road, I stood and felt the wind caressing my face, my shirt flapping in the breeze, the sense of openness and possibility, I recalled the time in my life – most of my life – when I did not ever see a country road, or feel this openness, this sense of possibility, this gentle breeze rolling along a spring meadow. Without the natural world and without animals, we are broken. Our plant is broken and each of us make our own choices about how to respond.

I can no longer live without open roads, they are the pathway to my spirit, my soul.