This chick decided to heck with it all, she was going to follow what she loved and build a log cabin in the woods on a lake. So she up and buys 22 acres in the Adirondacks (this was in the mid-60's I believe) and proceeds to construct her little kingdom. She literally goes to the sawmill, buys 20-something huge aspen logs, grabs a couple guys to bring a generator and some tools to the property so they can frame the building, floats the logs up the lake, and proceeds to build her cabin. With an axe. She then lives there with her boat, and eventually a German Shepherd named Pitzi. She is bloody awesome.
No, she does not become angry spinster woman, for all of you who might want to shove her into that peg the world makes for women who get fed up with some dumbass guy's crap and decide that surrounding oneself with beauty and animals is a better option. She entertains regular visitors, does biological field work in South America, completes a degree in wildlife ecology (no easy feat, I can tell you that!), works as a consultant and writer, and becomes certified as an Adirondack guide.
It's like a drink of fresh, cold water, to hear the voice of a strong, intelligent woman who took the lemons of divorce and made an incredible, life-filling lemonade that she enjoys with every fiber of her being. She has that ability which I constantly seek, to be fully connected to the forest and its life all around her, yet fully engaged in the outside world. Her cabin remains both her sanctuary of retreat and her platform from which to launch herself to wherever her eyes are set.
Yeah, I freaking love her.
2 comments:
Thank you for introducing me to Anne LaBastille. I spent last night researching her life and her works. I ordered a copy of the "Woodswoman" maybe it will inspire me to pursue greater adventures.
I think you would really like her, she is very insightful, down to earth and just seems like one of those people that would be awesome to sit down and have a conversation with.