I’m a latecomer to nature; I was too busy being successful in the media and book world to pay much attention to it. The spirits called me to come to the country and write some books there, but I was taken by surprise at my walks in the woods for a year with my two companion Labradors.

I had a close friend at first – he first introduced me to the country, but he moved away abruptly without telling me and stopped talking to me after that. I don’t know why that happened; I can only assume I made him uncomfortable. I do have a gift for doing that, or at least I did then, just before I had my super breakdown and came close to giving up on life.

I bought a small cabin, holed up for a year with Thomas Merton Books, and went on my Hero Journey. My friend was one of my magical helpers, but like some others, he disappeared. Perhaps he was never really there. I was pretty messed up then. Life is full of mystery. Merton’s writing was a great help for me.

By year’s end, I knew I had to move to the country. My wife at the time had different wants and plans. We ended up splitting up, a dreadful experience.

I owe my friend a lot; he got me here.

I see now that two things saved me and turned me around – the beautiful nature around me, the flowers I planted, the walks in the woods I took, my work with border collies, the great herd workers of the dog world. The other was Maria. I became a Shepherd; my dog Rose and I walked them around town and into the village down the road (some big dogs halted that).

I loved breathing the clean air, walking and sitting in the silence I had never known existed, listening to the water in the streams, looking up at a beautiful sky and so many stars.

My Hero Journey took me to Maria and falling in love, and I understood I was never going to run away from that, as I had run away from so many things in my life.

I feared storms in my previous life, especially in the winter. They halted my very full, yet empty, and intense life. Here, I have learned to love the storms; they give me the most beautiful pictures. I found my place. All along, it was nature who drew me here. Life kept me here. They bring me back to real life.

Then there was the farm, the animals, the summers, the streams, the deer, the bears, the dogs, the kind and simple people around me.

But honestly, nature was a major part of it. Nature spurred my photography; I took in huge cows looking for a home, and I loved being alone in a storm like no other. My hills were so beautiful in the snow; I loved walking in them. My pictures began to tell my story, with Maria’s encouragement and health.

Even now, when I can’t take those long walks in the woods, I can go outside every morning with my camera to walk in nature and capture the feelings of it, something I relish every day of my life.

Nature is a precious thing, a beautiful thing, something I will never again move away from. This photo reminds me of nature; I took it months ago in pouring rain, but I still keep it on my computer desktop. It reminds me to love nature, and to be so grateful to be living right in it. Sometimes it can take a lifetime to follow or find our destiny.

I put this photo up from time to time to share its beauty and meaning and to refresh my sense of nature’s beauty.

The challenge of every separate stage of life, I think, is to confront its fears so that I can become more than I was. For the young, it’s to overcome a dread for being alone. For me, it’s a dread of never being alone.

At my age, the task is to learn to cope with the fear of weakness so I can become more than I was.

I hope you enjoy the picture.