"I would like to be a link in a mental food chain that provides reliable and intriguing information about the natural world and its intricate workings with anyone open to its wonders."
Commissioned by Milkweed Editions for its Credo Series of autobiographical books by prominent nature writers, Shaped by Wind and Water is an uncharacteristically personal reflection by Ann Haymond Zwinger.
"My discomfort of introspection may be why I prefer natural history writing, which dictates an outward focus, not an inward one," she explains in the opening pages of a seven-day examination of the guiding principles behind her life as a naturalist.
Born in 1925, Zwinger began her writing career in her 40s and has authored and co-authored more than two dozen volumes, including Beyond the Aspen Grove (1970), Wind in the Rock (1978), A Conscious Stillness (1982) and The Nearsighted Naturalist (1998).
During her week's introspection, spent in retreat at Hedgebrook on Whidbey Island west of Seattle, Zwinger discovered and shares these beliefs:
"I believe that it takes time to develop the deep respect and understanding for the natural world that we humans must have to survive."
"If life is a search, then this is the path I follow: red cedar, Douglas fir, winter wren, rainbow spectrum, yellowjacket. And when there are no finite answers, there is at least hope and concinnity along the way."
