Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau builds a cabin out in the woods and lives there. He goal in all of this was to become one with nature. He was only a few miles away from town, but he blocks out that world and focuses on the area in front of him. He writes, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discovered that I had not lived." Thoreau wanted to live his life as raw as he could. He wanted to learn to appreciate the nature that he and many others so carelessly live on everyday. So he secluded himself. He build a house with his own two hands that was basically nothing more than a one room building. In doing so he found himself.

Poem

Life is nothing without family
Homeless children
Fighting to survive in  a cold, heartless world
Their courage gives me courage
The strength in their eyes fills me with hope for tomorrow
The love for their siblings makes me question my own relationships
They are so brave at a young age
On the streets of Mexico
They fight to live another day.

The Summer Day

This poem is about life. The author challenges the reader to think about their own life. The quote "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" says much about the author's overall message to get across in this piece. She wants us to take a look into our daily lives. She wants us to think about the small details that more often than not get overlooked. She uses a specific grasshopper to emphasize her point.  She notes the tiny details about this grasshopper that I personally would not to stop and think about, such as, the way she moves her jaws back and forth as opposed to up and down. At the beginning of the poem she asks who created this world and the creatures on it. She talks about how everything dies and usually it happens to soon. This poem conveys the message that our lives get taken for granted everyday and we as a society need to slow down and enjoy every minute of it.

Refuge Epilogue by Terry Tempest Williams

In this excerpt our author finds out that her family has been subject to cancer due to the nuclear bomb testing that has been occurring in the area. She and her father were reminiscing one day about her late mother when she recalls a dream she had been having about a flash of light. Turns out her dream was not actually a dream. That event happened when she was very little. Her family drove past a very intense bomb. Because of that bomb her mother and many of her other family members suffered from breast cancer. After finding out this information she participates in a protest and becomes arrested for civil disobedience on military lands. What is so inspiring about this passage is the fact that the author made a stand for what she believed was right. She made a stand to honor the women that had died from such a horrible disease. She finds peace in being left in the middle of a dessert and when everyone expected her to break down she became stronger.

Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams

I thought this excerpt was very interesting. First, the author describes the Great Salt Lake. She talks about how the depth of the lake fluctuates based on the type of climate that area is experiencing.  The lake has varied as much as twenty feet in the last one hundred years. This in turn effects the land surrounding the lake and many of the ecosystems established in that area. This is where the author becomes emotionally involved. If the lake reaches a certain height it will flood out the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. She and her Grandma spent many years watching the burrowing owls. On her annual visit to watch the birds she finds that they have been kicked out by several men who really could care less. We can tell she is upset simply by how she reacts. She even comes back the next day hoping she would find the burrowing owls just the way she left them the previous year. She then goes on to describe the way she was raised in believing that all life forms had a spirit life before and after life on earth. Her family loved the land and the joy that it brought them. She then goes on to describe her first encounter with bird watching with her Grandmother. This experience gave her a deep appreciation for birds, specifically the owl, that stayed with her for her lifetime.