Lover of Woods and Words
Two watersheds have created my life. I have mapped out the valleys and mountains of these singing waters in the folds of my grandmother’s quilt and the creases of the palm of my hand. These wrinkles in the landscape, and the waters that created them, carry me home again and again. ~ Jim Minick
“It’s supposed to be you who cries while reading my book, and not the other way around!” I wrote in an e-mail to my friend Jim Minick, author of Finding a Clear Path. Jim and I recently met-up at the Franklin County Book Festival, where we both were scheduled to do readings, and where we happily exchanged our respective books.
Mine is a family story about losing two brothers and is part of a curriculum in a grief and loss class at Radford University. His is a collection of essays steeped in his growing-up years on a farm in Pennsylvania, and living in the countryside of Southwest Virginia as an adult.
When I reached page 14, I broke down.
My father taught me to read. Long before I could decipher the black squiggles on a page, he had me reading the meadow and mountain woods … Jim wrote in an essay titled “Walking in a World of Language.” In “Naming What You Love,” the essay that follows, he writes: Red bud, bergamot, red-eyed vireo. I record the return and reawakening of each species in my notebook, my private welcome back.
“Growing up the way you did, with support and encouragement that fostered your love of nature, stirred up my grief at not having such a childhood,” I wrote to Jim in the e-mail. “I wanted the names of the amazing natural things around me, but, coming from a small town working class family of 11 with a father who was struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from WWII, no one knew the names or remembered them,” I confessed.
Jim, a former Floyd County blueberry farmer who has since moved to Rural Retreat, Virginia, is a teacher of writing and literature at Radford University. A portion of the proceeds from his book, published by the West Virginia University Press, is donated to the Blue Ridge Forest Cooperative, a landowner group working to practice sustainable forestry, and to the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. The donations are made in the names of Floyd Countians, Mary Risacher and Tony Equale. (Note: Mary passed away from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after the publication of Jim’s book).
As a Floyd Countian myself, Mary and Tony’s were not the only recognizable names I came across in Jim’s book. Many of the regional places and events Jim writes about are familiar to me.
In simple, gracefully precise language, Jim writes about a Rock Castle Gorge hike, another one up to Buffalo Mountain, the ice storms of 1993, and finding his way on the back roads of Floyd County using the Little River as a map. Birds, butterflies, yellow jackets, and a turtle with the date “1899” carved on its body all show up in Jim’s book, as do blacksnakes, or the stories of them, passed down by former owners of the 100 year old Floyd farmhouse that Jim and his wife lived in for 12 years.
Most of the essays in Finding a Clear Path were previously published in a column that Jim wrote for the Roanoke Times New River Current, and many include useful suggestions and resources, including those for building a pond, growing ginseng, making horseradish, and more. Jim’s unobtrusive voice is a blended part of the natural world that he writes about. “An eloquent invitation to slow down and pay attention,” the quote on the cover, written by Sandra Ballard says.
But my whole family also read in the written world. Every day Mom and Dad read the newspaper. My older sister scowled at my interruptions of Nancy Drew … Later Kathy, my sister, helped me to write my name, Jim continues in “Naming What You Love.”
More tears come, as I recall my first day of kindergarten and the sense of un-preparedness I felt when I discovered that most everyone in the class, but me, already knew how to write their names. It wasn’t that I wasn’t capable of writing my name – I learned to do it by the end of the day – but no one had shown me beforehand, or told me it was something important to know.
As an adult, writing has become a central theme in my life, and although I missed out on the degree of individual guidance that Jim had growing up on a farm, I’ve been making up for lost time, learning to identify flowers on the Blue Ridge Parkway, foraging for wild herbs to make my own medicinal tinctures, and growing and preserving a substantial amount of my own food.
Living in the country for the past 20 years has accelerated my exploration into natural world, but it’s an ongoing self-study. I consider Jim’s book to be a refreshing opportunity to continue my education. Viewing the world from his eyes has further opened my own.
For Colleen, a fellow lover of woods and words, Jim wrote below his signature in my copy of “Finding a Clear Path.”
Note: Jim’s book can be ordered via the West Virginia University Press or can be purchased in Floyd from Notebooks, as well as from Barnes and Noble and other bookstores.
September 1st, 2006 9:57 am
Oh Colleen….I’m sorry. You’ve made your own wonderful person and you did it the hard way.
September 1st, 2006 10:32 am
We knew we were loved and had a sense of belonging, but individual attention was hard to come by in such a large family with parents who were struggling to keep us all clothed and fed. My younger siblings might have had a different experience.
September 1st, 2006 11:40 am
From my blog…
Have you ever had the experience of someone else’s words bringing forth a mind picture so vivid you could not disregard it? Even when the image the writer was invoking had nothing to do with your mind picture? Well it just happened to me reading Colleen’s opening quote…I don’t know why, but the image that flooded my mind was of my father’s hands from many, many years ago. It comes from early childhood and Sunday mornings in the Baptist Church where I was raised. I was holding his hand and tracing the veins that stood out like little ridges on the back. For some reason those ridges fascinated me all through my early years. So much so that when I look at my own hands forty years later I am still comparing them to those images from my childhood, and wondering why mine never have had those same ridges.
After writing the above, I continued to read the rest of Colleen’s post for today. She managed to convince me I really wanted to see/hear the word pictures Jim Minnick paints so the book is already ordered. Lord, isn’t the internet aterriblee/great place to hang out? Thanks, Colleen.
September 1st, 2006 2:22 pm
My folks taught me to write my name before first grade (no kindergarten then), but it was my middle name, not my first. So, I had no idea how to spell my first name. So embarassing. How did I get over it! 🙂
September 1st, 2006 4:09 pm
A beautiful tribute to a fellow writer, Colleen.
September 1st, 2006 7:20 pm
His book sounds similar to Fred First’s. I will look for it. Thanks, Colleen.
September 1st, 2006 7:59 pm
A great tribute and another book to go on a long list… thanks.
September 1st, 2006 8:48 pm
Jim’s book, like Fred’s, is meant to be savored. I read both a few pages at a time and dreaded when I came to the end. Both books complement each other nicely. They’re the best two nature (back to nature? arising from nature? appreciation of nature? all of the above?) books I’ve read in the last year. And the best two Appalachian books. And regional author books. Heck, they’re both really good books.
September 2nd, 2006 8:01 am
Colleen!
First off: I looovvve the beginning quote.
I was touched too when I read this from your entry Colleen:
“More tears come, as I recall my first day of kindergarten and the sense of un-preparedness I felt when I discovered that most everyone in the class, but me, already knew how to write their names. It wasn’t that I wasn’t capable of writing my name – I learned to do it by the end of the day – but no one had shown me beforehand, or told me it was something important to know.”
Let me draw a parallel to this – I just sent a note to one of my high school class mates, class of ’66, who went on to college and made a successful life as a newspaper sports writer. I said to him when he wrote and told me he was sure he would enjoy Colleen’s book that I gave him on reunion night that we didn’t really know eachother well in high school, not because we wouldn’t have been good friends, but because he was in a different world. He was in the “college” class for the smart kids and I was in the “business” class. I’d get a job and just plug along.
I said too, that the word “college” was never uttered in our home. There was just too much else going on to think of such a thing.
I said to him:
“If we made it through high school, that was a big enough accomplishment in my parents eyes. My youngest sister, the 9th, was the only one to attend.
You will see though as you read, that we were brought up with a lot of love and although there was never a dull moment and never talk of further education, we were nourished with an education of another kind. LOVE.”
Let me say too, to try to bring this full circle – that our love for knowledge was instilled into our beings because of that love. Our self study into so much of what makes our world work is proof of that.
Your friend Jim’s writings sound wonderful.
September 2nd, 2006 8:12 am
I’d say you found your way quite well, Colleen. Your path has been rich and best of all, your contentment shows.
September 2nd, 2006 9:00 am
Kath, I was in the college class. I got routed there, but I couldn’t take the pressure; I felt out of place; and I couldn’t keep up with the algebra (due to my dyscalacia, anything but basic math made me feel like I was going to have a seizure!), so I requested to be out of it and also went on to “business.” I do remember seeing the pressure some kids felt to make good grades and how relieved I was that our parents accepted us for her we were regardless of our grades. Also, Sherry eventually went to nursing school and some of us did go to what we used to call “night school,” community college while working, or to courses for accreditation, like I did in early childhood education.
I had an intimate relationship with the plants that grew around us but didn’t even know the names of the most common ones like Queen Anne’s lace. By the time our younger siblings came along, I was taking them on what I called “nature walks” (although I still didn’t know the names of what we were appreciating). In many ways us older kids picked up the slack and took care of the younger ones when they came along. I recall making sure the youngest, like Trish knew how to write her name before starting school.
Also, it’s true, Dad was a pretty good model for self-study, which is how I learn most everything.
September 2nd, 2006 9:41 am
I’m late to responding to this! I loved the post. Right now, my brain is into “school” with two kids starting next week and one doing the homeschooling. I don’t remember learning to write my name until I was in first grade. You should have seen the look on the teacher’s face when my oldest went for her kindergarten testing (yes, they now test for Kindergarten)! She came out of the room very upset with me…because Whitney didn’t know how to write her name!
BTW…they had Kindergarten when you went to school? It was still a fairly new thing when I started school.
September 2nd, 2006 9:54 am
Yes, we had kindergarten. My trauma at not knowing how to write my name was preceded by the fact that I had no idea my mother was planning to leave me there! Kids are much more prepared today…but sometimes overprepared!
September 2nd, 2006 11:50 am
Sounds like a good book. Knowing the names and ways of the natural world is such a treasure.
September 2nd, 2006 11:50 am
You just fill me up, sometimes, and drain me. All at once.
Beautiful.
And now, I’ve got to get the book. That it was published by WVU is only a secondary impetus, I promise. 😉
September 2nd, 2006 11:50 am
It’s amazing you can remember so much of childhood. I only have half a dozen memories before grade 6.
September 4th, 2006 12:41 am
What blossoms from struggle and hardship — this is a beautiful, powerful entry. Nature continues to be a voyage of discovery for me after my city upbringing.
September 3rd, 2008 7:32 pm
lwyxuih