30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Thirty: California - future state

California. The Golden State. The El Dorado State. The land of milk and honey. The land of sunshine and opportunity.

Moving to California has been great for me and my family. Everything happens first in California. My kids have grown up in that future state. They have been exposed and absorbed the diversity that many in this country discuss but many don’t understand or accept. I grew up mostly in Kansas that is still 85% white today and was much more white in the small towns of 30 years ago. They grew up in the new urban/suburban/exurban world that dominates today. I grew up in rural, agricultural America that is fading away. They live and breathe the new technologies. I still chase and take time to adapt.

Sometimes things just aren’t the way they appear or the way you want them to be. I grew up in rural America. We embraced nature and yes much of our time deep in nature was hunting and fishing but it got you out on the land. I hunted mostly birds and small game. But friends hunted deer and larger game. I had a friend that always maxed out the deer permits every year. I don’t even remember them all – antlered, antler-less, gun, black powder, archery, I know there was at least one more. We knew the land. We walked the land. We thought it was paradise.

Now I live in an anonymous subdivision, in an anonymous fast growing mid-sized California city. There is a creek running through the subdivisions that is easy observed from well-maintained trails and concrete sidewalks. The section of creek we walk along is about 1.5 miles long. There is more abundance and variety of wildlife along this creek than I viewed in years of tramping through farmer’s fields and pastures growing up. Some of it is opportunistic and thriving off the intersection of man and nature. The green grass, the cleared fields, the garbage full of delightful treats. But it is nature and it is wild. My wife witnessed and filmed two large black-tailed deer rutting. She was drawn a short ways off the trail by the rattling of antlers as they clashed. Yesterday we witnessed a golden eagle swoop down and land empty handed in the middle of a rafter of turkeys. The only injury was a turkey that shed a bunch of feathers when it nicked a barbwire fence in its frantic escape. These are the type of wildlife encounters you watch on tv.

The world is changing my friends and it is not always what we perceive (and may have never been). Are you changing with it? Are you open minded to new realities and new ways of perceiving the world around you?

This is my entry into #challenge30days by @dragosroua. Thanks @dragosroua for dreaming this up and keeping me motivated. Thanks to everyone that has read and/or commented on my posts.

Original photo above is the unsuccessful Golden Eagle hunter. Looks a little sad I think.