Happy Birthday, Julie Zickefoose!!!

In my family, the written word has always been a prominent love language. Every year since I was 10, my mom has dutifully crafted a celebratory blogpost on my birthday--a couple of weeks ago, she published the 15th! Some are poetic while others are more of a narrative, and all include a highlight reel of photos that sum up my recent history. Anyone who has me mixed into their Facebook algorithm has probably seen them. Liam gets them, too, as did my dad and our first dog Chet Baker (Curtis usually gets a gotcha-day post). So I'm not sure why it's taken so long to strike me that I would like to write a birthday blogpost for my mom. I'm drafting this post on the actual day of her birth, July 24th, but given my ~creative process~ it probably won't see the light of day until it's a bit belated. But good things take time, like the pot roasts and fruit crisps and chicken pot pies she puts in the oven. Since I moved away, I've been trying like hell to recreate her meals, so I know how it works. 

Simply put, I am so proud of my mom. I've always been proud of her, but the feeling has expanded even more these past few years. One of her main fears around my dad's passing was no longer having someone around to do the big land maintenance tasks he'd always (albeit infrequently) done, like weed whacking and mowing the fields with the big tractor. With me living elsewhere and Liam at college, she was essentially alone with our property. If only she could have seen herself now! She has fearlessly figured everything out and tackled the biggest projects of her life on that land, pruning and planting and mowing and growing with a keen eye for beauty and the utmost respect for native wildlife. She has made great connections with local landscapers and Amish roofers (who she also sometimes hires to hop on the tractor), and taught herself how to weed whack. She spent months doggedly heading out every day with hedge trimmers and eventually freed our overgrown orchard from the multiflora rose and grapevines strangling it. She has reclaimed and maintained all of the trails on our land that had been grown over for years. She completely cleaned out and reorganized our basement and garage, which both formerly looked like portals to hell. And now that all the refuse is gone, my favorite part has been watching her dream up and indulge in small but significant aesthetic improvements; namely her new patio. I know she's made my dad so proud with this--he would always sit in the yard with a beer on summer evenings and dream up ideas just like that one. 

Grilling surprise steaks for my birthday after she cleaned the cobwebs off of my dad's old gas grill and taught herself how to use it. I honestly never thought I would taste that again. (And before you ask, Liam's tattoo is temporary!)

Just a few of the dogwoods freed

While undertaking everything listed above, my mom also continued her life's work of supporting and documenting all of the wildlife around her. All by herself, she creates a bastion for birds, bugs, plants, animals, and everything in between. Within her considerable sphere of influence, baby bluebirds don't starve when there's a late spring cold snap. Monarchs, fritillaries, skippers, and swallowtails have ample butterfly weed and milkweed to sustain them. Rare and beautiful orchids thrive on what was once barren cow pasture. And bobcats have clawed their way back from near extermination, leading kittens down the well-maintained meadow paths each summer. My mom has stacks of journals filled with her observations of every kind of living creature, and can tell you things like exactly how many unique species of butterflies she's found on the property (77 with a new addition last week!) and the approximate arrival dates for any migrating bird. Through her actions and wisdom, she has shown me that one does not need to have a PhD in order to make meaningful and valid contributions to science. 

Showy Orchis on our land!

Painting by her, of course

The amazing thing is that most everything I've written so far will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone connected with my mom online. She's not only made these observations for herself--she has crafted them into alluring stories and shared them with the world through books, her blog, and social media (@juliezickefoose on Instagram if you're not already there). She has made the wonders of nature accessible to anyone willing to read. It recently hit me that when I marvel at how much she's taught me about the natural world, I have to multiply that by at least a few thousand to even begin to capture her influence in this world. In a time when the natural world needs well-informed allies more than ever, she has provided a spectacular and invaluable service. 

And of course, to top this all off, she is an absolutely incredible mother; the details of which I hold close to my heart sometimes. Being able to go home to her is my greatest privilege in this life and truly keeps me sane. She has taught me lessons and ways of being that will echo down through generations of our family to come. Every day I am a little more like her, and it's always something I'm thankful for. Because to be like her is to save the world. Happy birthday, mama.