Why Should I Care?

 

 White Rock Prairie

It is a question that is asked frequently.  Why should I care?  Why should I care about what, you ask.  Well there are lots of things you already care about, your family, your friends, your job, how about where you live?  You do care about that don't you?  Part of that is caring about what is around you.

Would you like to live next to an industrial area, a busy shopping center or a quiet neighborhood.  How about a nice quiet neighborhood near a park?  With a pond and some trees.  And open space too so the kids can run and play.  How about that?  Does it make you care a little bit more?

These are things that we look for when we move to a new city or are looking for a new house.  At least we used to.  I know I did when I bought my house.  I care about where I live.  I care about the open areas because I like them and they are a place where I can get away, take a walk and relax.

My background was always connected to the outdoors.  Walking to the lake with the family on Sundays.  Playing outside and going down to the creek to explore, looking for fossils and fools gold.  This was my beginning to want to learn more.  Asking my father about the trees and wildflowers we saw on our family walks.  My mother pointing out the birds and butterflies.  I began caring about what I saw and was learning.  Especially when I saw places disappear.

Imagine, if you will, a place any young teenage girl, well a lot of them anyway, could walk across the street and be in a pasture full of wildflowers, grasses, trees and oh yes, horses!  That was so fantastic to be able to have that right across the street from where my parents built our house.  Little did I realize that this would seal the deal for me.  It wasn't just the walks to the lake from the first house we lived in.  It was this next connection that made all the difference.

At this prairie, which I had no clue what it was then, it was my awakening to the natural world around me.  This was a huge piece of land smack dab in the big city with meadowlarks, quail, foxes, roadrunners, raccoons, hawks, owls, rabbits and more.  For those of you familiar with our city it was the piece of land bordered by Lovers Lane, Skillman, NW Hwy and Greenville.  The corner of Greenville and Lovers Lane had a small driving range where a famous golfer once worked...Lee Trevino.  The rest of it was wide open space with creeks, tanks, and trails.  It was called Lovers Lane Stables.  A fabulous place where I spent many long hours watching wildlife, learning about wildflowers and yes, riding horses.   It was the bestest place on earth.  It was here that I decided I would learn everything I could about horses and what they needed.  Good pasture with native grasses, clean water, trees for shade - it all seemed amazingly simple.  At least back then it seemed that was enough.

After a few years of this heaven the flagging stakes began to appear.  I was of the age now where college was looming on the horizon and choices needed to be made.  Which direction would I go - veterinarian, agriculture---horses you know, or teaching.?  And why were all of these stakes being put through my stables?  What was happening to my paradise?  Then the road-graders showed up and section by section the stables began to disappear.  Owners had to find other places to board their horses. Not easy in a city where land is for development and not valued for open space. As I watched this happen and saw the wild creatures run for their lives, trying to cross busy roads, looking for another place to survive it was all too much.  I knew which direction would eventually be mine.  I care.