Dreams

I guess I’ve always been somewhat of a dreamer. My dreams have never been of great riches or a life of luxury, they have always been about wildlife and the world we live in. At about the age of four or five, after seeing my first Tarzan or Bomba the jungle boy show on TV, I always dream or fantasized about a life like that, roaming the jungles of Africa, living with the animals, that sort of thing. During my years as a teenager and early twenties while I was doing my studies with venomous snakes, I dreamed of traveling to Africa to catch snakes and also to photograph the African wildlife. I can’t help it, I just want to live around and with critters. It doesn’t matter how big or dangerous they are, I just don’t seem to have any fear of them. I have great respect for their speed and power but I have absolutely no fear of any critter or what it can, or may do to me. If it happens it happens. Since I gave my life over to our Lord in 2003, I seem to have even less of a worry about what can happen. I guess I figure if the Lord wants me to get mauled or eaten by a critter of some kind, then that is the way it is going to be, and nothing I can do will change or prevent that from happening. The inverse of that is also true. If the Lord doesn’t want me to be harmed by any critter, no matter how big or small, then no critter will harm me. Life is much simpler when you learn to walk, or in my case roll, with the Lord. Put your trust in the Lord and He will see you through everything.

My greatest thrill and enjoyment was when, in 2004, I finally made it up to the Katmai National Park at the base of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska to be close to and photograph the Great Coastal Alaskan brown bears (Grizzlies) in the wild. I received the same enjoyment when in 2007; I traveled to the edge of the Arctic in Churchill, Canada to photograph polar bears in the wild. Dreams come true. Since my accident in 1981, my Africa dreams were pretty much trashed. In my mind that sort of a trip is impossible. I can’t go to Africa in a wheelchair, it’s impossible.