Before getting into my Story, I wanted to mention some schedule changes.I have moved the start dates of the five-part Online Nature Photography and the five-part Awareness online classes to pick up a few more students. The 25% off Sale is still usable and will be applied at checkout!
All that i am is now.-Stalking wolf
I remember from 40+ years ago, back on the original Tracker farm. I was walking with my dad, and he was doing his usual coyote lessons. Eventually, we encountered an Artist Conch mushroom that had fallen off a tree. For those not familiar, they are the flat mushrooms that grow on the sides of trees. They call this species “The artist fungus” because it stays darker when you take your finger and make a line on it. We both sat on the ground, and I vividly remember him grasping my left hand and using my index finger as a pen; he helped me write my name. On that day 40 years ago, I knew I was meant to follow in my father’s footsteps, learning as he learned. Then, one day, I would start teaching after I put in enough dirt time.
I have carried this with me for over 40 years now.
Unfortunately, my parents divorced, and I moved to suburbia.
For the next 15 years, I suffered from Nature Deficit Disorder. After losing my connection, I slowly went downhill, trying to find things to fill the void, which eventually led me to become an opiate addict.
After some cherished friends saved my life and cleaned me up from the poisons I was putting in my body, my father started to ask me, “So when are you going to come back and teach?” I would always brush it off. Like my father before me, I started traveling to test my skills in many different urban and wilderness environments I learned as a child because I knew I would return and teach one day, but I felt I needed more experience. About three years into my trip, my grandfather passed away, and when I was home for the funeral, my father posed the question again, "When are you going to quit being a dirty hippy and come start teaching?" Shortly after returning to the road, I received two omens so blatant that it was as if creation collectively smacked me upside the head and said now was the time. So, in April of 2000, I returned and started teaching. I think next week will be 24 years that I have been “professionally” teaching, although I’ve been doing it my entire life in one form or another.
I spent the next nine years starting at the bottom and eventually working my way up to becoming the head instructor and Director. As much as I love my father, stepmother, brothers, and sisters, the pine barrens, Cedar swamps, and grandmother Atlantic, my vision was telling me that I needed to go out on my own for a while to find my own stories, transforming into my person, responsible for my face and not just a clone of my father, over the next 15 years that I’ve been away. I opened a small school called the Primitive Arts Collective. I was primarily teaching individuals and small groups across the country. I had no lack of students because everybody still remembered me from working with my father. I had waiting lists for classes and got so burned out that eventually, I ended up in Florida with my soulmate. Even though we are no longer together, I would do anything for her because she taught me how to be human. She taught me about emotions and that there was more than just anger, anxiety, or elation. Legally, you become an adult at 18 years old. Still, I did not become an adult until my mid-30s because of the patience, kindness, love, and understanding of the most wonderful person on Earth. I will eternally be grateful for everything she did to help me become who I am today.
After taking a year's sabbatical and living in Florida, we received an offer that was too good to be true, and you know what they say about things that are too good to be true! A friend approached me and asked if I could gather three other people who wanted to start a nonprofit outdoor education facility west of Washington, DC, on a 115-acre farm. So Lisa and I convinced our friends, Kevin and McNeill, to join us in transforming a beautiful but uncared-for and overgrown farm. Over the next two years, countless hours were spent at zoning board meetings, arguing with town officials about how our driveway needed to be 4 inches wider. It cost the nonprofit $30,000 because they said an ambulance could not get up the driveway when it was perfectly paved. I said, "Sir, I drove ambulances for three years, and I could drive an ambulance up this driveway blindfolded and not go off the road." Anyway, some signals got crossed at some point, and all the hard work, blood, sweat, and tears we put into that place evaporated. As things were nearing an end, I had been talking a lot with my good friend Tony, who would become my next employer and also just so happened to be my first customer in 2009 after I left working at Tracker school.
From the moment I met him, I knew he was a special individual with many unique gifts. He possesses the ancient skills we teach and understands how to do business. By combining the two, he has built a business that gets more kids in the woods yearly than any other school I know. I will forever be thankful for all I learned during my 5 1/2 years as Director of Adult programming and Land steward. Even though we don’t work together anymore, Tony still helps me navigate the entrepreneurship world. My original vision for FutureNature involved eventually reaching a day where I could teach for free. I am still invested in that vision, but there’s a long road between here and there.
As many of you know, Last week, I suffered the loss of my dog, Kora. Kora was my steadfast companion for 17 1/2 years. I would have to leave her at home when I was teaching, and she would get super excited. One interesting fact I will share is that I have a security camera in my house. It's motion sensitive, so anytime. It detects movement; I get an alert on my phone. Precisely 20 minutes before returning home, I would get a notification! You could set a watch by it! That’s how deeply connected we were. I have spent long periods alone but have never been as lonely. Now that she is physically gone, I know the feeling well. I have been in Oregon for seven years, and for the past two years, I’ve been trying to build and grow my two businesses: FutureNature and T3Photography.
After partying with my previous teaching position, I promised myself I would never again have bosses other than Nature and my students. Over a few months, I went from living the best quarter of my life to having things be smashed to bits. Hindsight is always 20/20, and I can see my mistakes over the last two years. Luckily, I know one of the most important things in life is to learn from your mistakes, for they are your most important teacher. Just like where there is life, there is death; where there is failure, there is also success. In two years, I have learned more about business than I ever cared to. Now, I have suffered through having my identity stolen and relished the times I could gather people together for classes. In the last two years, I have:
I have linked up with several local organizations I will be running programs with, such as the class I co-teaching with Cascadia Wild in July.
I learned all those business skills I dread, yet I still have much more to learn.
I have found new mentors and good friends throughout this process.
I’ve hosted many private mentoring sessions in person, online, and public classes.
I have Built and designed many online classes, as well as in-person classes.
On the T3Photography side of things, I have:
I have taken some pretty epic photos and videos, which you can view on my social media pages or my photography website, which is www.t3-Photography.com, or my YouTube and Instagram
I've done all sorts of commercial photography, from real estate to photographing craftspeople passionate about what they do and what they make. For those jobs, I shoot videos of them, create things, and photograph their inventory for their websites.
Building and growing my collection of online classes
People often ask me why photography is so important to me. The first reason is my father. I have many fond memories of us going out with our cameras. The other reason is that when people look at my photos and realize the beautiful things existing in nature right around where they live, it causes them to question, “What else am I missing?” and their awareness shifts, and then they start seeking these things out on their own.
The other reason is that I want to show the world the way I view it through my eyes.
Well, that was a long post! I will also attach a video version to the newsletter.
Lastly, thank you so much for your support, whether you donated to my GoFundMe or not or you sent me an email thanking me for the work I do. Or call me to chat. As far as my GoFundMe, I'd like to close out by finishing raising the funds I initially sought. I'm so close! Those funds would be a godsend right now so I can get caught up on rent, and now that I have my advertising privileges back, I can start doing that to draw more students. I would also like to go to the dentist and get my heart checked.
Just as my father jokingly says at the start of the standard class, I know this is my life's work, which is why I work senselessly to try and lead my fellow humans back to our wild roots and teach them how to walk the razor’s edge by living in the modern world but leading a nature-based lifestyle. I will continue to work, trying to teach people a different way to look upon the earth and their own lives, and also teach them skills that will help them to be more self-sufficient and how to have deep, meaningful relationships with the whole of creation.
Much love, thanks, and praises,
T3
Getting ready to make some cordage and some baskets
