All of us long to live our passion 
but
it may take an obsession to get us there!

From childhood, I felt a overwhelming need to be in Africa with animals - lots of them. This obsession has always overcome my fears, loneliness, logic and  even wobbly finances. I set goals toward this dream, and  bit -  by tiny bit - achieved them. It did take stubbornness which I inherited in huge dollops from my folks and grand-folks. But not luck. I believe in faith, which I have had to develop plenty of, along the way. 

And when you won't take no for an answer, support always kicks in! Try it. It feels great once you get the hang of it...

Obsession, goals, stubbornness, and faith = living your passion.

The results are wonderful and dramatic. Great friends gathered on the journey. Invigorating career changes.  Powerful shifts in intuition and faith. Unexpected new horizons. Laughter.

And for me, the primal joy of late afternoon light softening  the dusty outlines of elephants, giraffe and zebras, as they amble from the waterhole, their needs met. Another day survived. Africa at peace.    

           

A rare state, peace in Africa.

But change for the positive can happen if each of us helps just a little. The wildlife and the people of Africa need your help from -- OUTSIDE OF AFRICA -- if their beautiful wild habitats are to survive. Africa's people are too preoccupied with their own survival to preserve space for wildlife. 

 Give a hand or give dollars to organizations that assist both people and Nature like the African Wildlife Foundation, the Jane Goodall Institute, or Habitat for Humanity, to name a few that I admire - for details, visit their websites. Some groups do make a great difference. And often it takes only one positive example to turn things around.  

      Myself, I respect elephants. And I can't agree with legalizing the limited sale of ivory -- not now,  while poaching, poverty and diminishing wild habitats are huge problems in Africa.


Consider  the story behind the images of  "THE COMEBACK KIDS: Elephants of Addo":

	In 1919, in the Sunday River valley of South Africa, European settlers shot all but 11 of the local elephants to make way for croplands. Twelve years later, the few survivors of the massacre were protected in a tiny park called Addo, but farmers still feared crop raids. Finally a park warden devised an indestructible fence made of railroad ties and steel cable -- mostly donated by Otis Elevator Company -- that kept the elephants out of the farms. Now they are flourishing, and the park may be expanded to support 2500 elephants!
Elephants need our protection.
	One company and one clever park warden made the all difference.

When you look at the images of these young elephants beginning life with such vulnerability and such pleasure, do you find yourself asking - as I do - how can we change the past patterns of humankind? Will the descendants of the Comeback Kids survive into the next century? And if they do not, how were you and I responsible for their loss?     Please help however you can.