Happy Father’s Day to all the men who help children appreciate and care for the natural world around them.
For generations, fathers, grandfathers, and uncles have shared experiences with children outdoors.
They teach sons and daughters; nieces and nephews; and grandchildren to hunt, fish, catch frogs, and see the wonders of design in the trees, grasses, and flowers. Children cherish memories like these for a lifetime.
Many people, who learn to appreciate nature at a young age, repeat these same lessons with the children in their lives. They will pass the traditions forward to generation after generation as long as we have woods, prairies, and streams to share.
DJ Glisson, II, creative director and proprietor of Firefly Imageworks, looks forward to passing his love of the outdoors to his son.
He appreciates the work the land trust community does to protect the land and the special places in our country. He’s thankful he will have the opportunity to build memories and share amazing outdoor experiences with his family. Here’s what he has to say.
Becoming a dad has been a wild, joyous, terrifying thing. Something nobody could’ve prepared me for.
The feelings of love, appreciation and responsibility for my son, Phoenix, are deeper and wider than I could’ve ever seen coming. And along with them, my hopes and fears for the world he’ll grow up in — from the tiniest details, to the biggest, most daunting and totally out of my control — have expanded exponentially.
As I take it all in, I can’t help but consider my own story and its various impacts. Among those has been my work capturing both video and photography for the Land Trust Alliance. What started out as a small gig capturing U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy’s remarks at Advocacy Days 2012 soon grew into sharing stories of an entire community of people working tirelessly to protect the grandeur of the world I know, find so endlessly beautiful and have always been fascinated by.
Back then, I was one of the many that take such work for granted; enjoying an afternoon on the lake, but never quite lending a second thought to what it takes to keep a landscape untouched, a prairie green or a housing development from overwhelming a community garden. Since then, from Capitol Hill to rolling hills — through mountains, watersheds, swamps and rivers — I’ve been blessed to see, capture and tell the stories of so many that consider the land and its protection their highest calling.
Now, alongside the birth of my boy, I look back on that work and the many souls doing it with an enormous well of appreciation. The work that’s being done daily by land trusts across this nation is consequential; preserving a world limitless in scope, beauty and ability to fascinate in ways both academic and poetic. Their work is foundational to a connection I feel deep within myself and am excited for Phoenix to feel ever deeper as he opens his eyes to it with each new day.
He’ll camp, fish, pretend a stick is a sword and climb a tree higher than I’ll feel totally comfortable with all because this community of people are on the front lines, ensuring that these things are still here for him to experience, grow with and appreciate.
I look forward to introducing him to new and even more awe-inspiring places, exploring them with fresh eyes alongside his, and along the way, reminding him of the work (and people) keeping the beauty around us as bountiful, mysterious, wonderful and limitless as it is.
I can’t wait.
This heart-warming story appeared in the the Land Trust Alliance newsletter on June 13, 2018.
