Tag Archives: curiosity

The Power Of A Story

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Wednesday found me admiring the gorgeous fall foliage in Dayton’s Woodland Cemetery. I’m on vacation this week and, after days of doing what other people wanted me to do, it was nice to roam freely.

We wandered around this enormous cemetery on the hill where people have buried their loved ones literally for centuries. We found the graves of pioneers and soldiers, infants and the very old, and of people both famous and forgotten.

Adam found the grave of Julia Reichert, a 76 year old who died two years ago. I snapped a photo to remind me to Google her. Here’s what her epitaph reads:

She believed in love and justice

And the power of story

She fought for women and workers

And a better world.

She lived bravely and fiercely across all her years. 

What a tribute. I just had to know more about this woman and expected to find an obituary online. What I didn’t expect to find was a series of newspaper articles from publications in Ohio, New York City and Washington D.C. 

The Yellow Springs News wrote “A documentarian with a career spanning more than fifty years, Reichert’s oeuvre includes more than  two dozen works as director and producer. Her work in film will be remembered for holding a megaphone to the voices of women and the working class – a thematic thread that ran through many of her most important works.”

Her first  film Growing Up Female was released in 1971 and was considered one of the first films of the women’s liberation movement. The list of her accomplishments and accolades is impressive and hers sounds like a life well lived. 

It seems to me the world could use more people like her. Imagine being described as someone who “lived bravely and fiercely across all her years.” What an amazing thing to say about someone.

Oh, the power of story. 

Be curious about the world around you, friends. Go looking for stories. Ask questions. Look for more about the things that pique your interest. You may get a story out of it. You may learn something. You may be inspired, empowered and delighted by what you find. 

This is my advice but I hope Julia Reichert would approve.

Curiosity

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Being a self proclaimed country mouse, it is unheard of for me to stand in the heart of a city and not look up. At home, I look up to see the tall trees and the stars that reach to the heavens. In cities, I search the skyline for patterns and for things that stick out. I search for cats in windows and for wrought iron railings. I search for gargoyles and for unusual brick designs.

I search for the things others pass by without any notice at all. It seems people pass by an awful lot these days. I did some shopping after work last night and was surprised by the number of people standing around looking at their phones while they evidently waited for someone else.

Meanwhile, I tucked my phone in my bag and happily ignored it for most of the evening. It was lovely wandering around just looking at stuff and people watching.

It is my fondest hope that I will hold onto my curiosity about places and people and about how things are made. Life is richer when you look up to the top floor of a tall building and wonder what goes inside and why someone built it in the first place. It’s better when you wonder about the people who live and work there.

Life is better when you stop to consider how light and shadows play together to change the look of a place as the day progresses. It’s better when you pause to absorb the beauty of a blue sky day when you expected rain and have nowhere to be except where you are right now.

Incidentally, the beautiful building pictured here is the 1933 Cincinnati Times-Star building, a reported art deco masterpiece that looks like a must see for another trip to the city.

There’s always something new to see and appreciate!

Blessed Are The Curious

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“Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventures.” – Lovelle Drachman

Reminiscing About Arches

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As winter begins to wind down and adventure season dawns before us, my mind is wandering to some favorite past trips. This is what I do when I’m itching to travel but not able to go just yet.

The Wandering Canadians’ account of their visit to Utah and Arches National Park made me nostalgic for the glorious week I spent wandering through that area with my western adventure friend. That was back in 2018 and still stands up in my memory as one of my best trips ever.

This place is drastically different from my Ohio home. The red rocks, wide open skies and desert climate are like the surface of the moon compared to the lush, green hills of home. Here in Ohio, forests grow thick and tall. In Arches, the trees are small and gnarled curiosities that have fought to survive each passing year. Arches features spires, giant stone arches, balanced rocks and monoliths.

Maybe it’s the drastic difference in landscape that makes it so appealing. When you find something growing here like a cactus flower, a tree or an insect, it seems so miraculous that anything can survive in the sand and heat of this place.

This is why we travel – to understand the world beyond our daily reach and to better appreciate the places where we do live. It encourages us to ask questions and drives us to seek answers about the world and ourselves.

Traveling feeds a curious mind and a wandering soul. My feet itch just thinking about it!

We Keep Moving Forward

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We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

Walt Disney

Let’s all be curious today, shall we?

Speaking of curiosity, in case you’re wondering, this picture is from Lake Katherine State Nature Preserve. I have written about it before. Here’s my favorite story.