Pursuing a Passion for Nature After a Life in Business

By Kathleen Davies

The year 2001 was full of turmoil for me — for reasons both similar to and different than the rest of the country. The public-relations business I had started in Minneapolis 23 years earlier had grown from a solo operation into one with multiple employees, bringing stress and boredom even as a recession was looming. Because we represented high-tech companies, the Internet-bubble burst meant losing all my clients.

I didn't have the heart to look for new clients because my brother was dying and I wanted to spend more time with him. So I closed the business and began to reassess what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

The love of nature that developed during my childhood in what was then rural Minnesota inspired me to look at environmental organizations. At age 53, I hoped to reinvent myself by helping preserve wildlife and nature — though I wasn't quite sure how.

My quest has led me to assume multiple identities — student, volunteer, teacher, and paid consultant — and my life has taken some unexpected turns. I have had to make financial sacrifices, including selling my dream house. But I am living in harmony with my values — something I tried to do as a business person, but not always successfully.

I was no stranger to nonprofit work.

I had done pro-bono public relations and consulting and been a board member for several causes. After I closed my business, a good friend and former client offered me a consulting contract to do marketing for a public-radio organization, and I grabbed it.

That gave me an excellent segue into my new life: I could do something meaningful, but also save enough money to consider making a bold move.

My big moment came in June 2003.

By chance, a friend handed me a brochure about an adult travel seminar on birds and the environment in Namibia the following October, sponsored by Augsburg College. Immediately I said yes. Planning the trip helped me focus on learning more about birds and gave me a deadline for making decisions.

Suddenly, my dream was set in motion. I signed up for a home-study course on ornithology offered by Cornell University. Simultaneously I applied to be a University of Minnesota Extension Service master gardener, which meant college-level learning combined with teaching horticulture on a volunteer basis. It's a competitive process so I was delighted to be accepted and back in an academic world.

However, I had to accept that I could not maintain my old lifestyle.

I decided to sell the big, old house that I loved. I used some of the profit to invest in an interest-bearing note that provided monthly income.

The rest I used to buy a dilapidated old house and fix it up for eventual profit. I learned to budget carefully, giving up some of my favorite pastimes — eating in restaurants with friends, pedicures, manicures, massages, and coffee houses.

I was scared. Although my parents had died long ago, I had nightmares about having to move back in with them.

Despite the money pinch, I was ready for the next step — volunteering as a way to develop new skills that might help me land a paid job. I found an ideal position at the Raptor Center, a program affiliated with the University of Minnesota's College of Veterinary Medicine (supported mostly by private donations) that cares for birds of prey, some of them endangered species.

I spent four years volunteering one or two days a week, growing from a nervous tour leader to a raptor handler, programmer, and crew leader responsible for training and motivating others. I learned how to inspire others, both young and old, by teaching with those amazing birds.

Meanwhile, I continued developing my master-gardener credentials, taking additional courses to become a state tree-care adviser and a Minnesota master naturalist.

These programs each require 50 hours of volunteer service the first year, and 25 hours each following year. I have spent that time teaching school groups, garden-center patrons, "hotline callers," and community organizations about wildlife and habitat, plus how to plant, compost, and care for plants and trees.

I kept an open mind about opportunities to combine paid work with my personal passions.

During a lull in volunteer activities in the winter of 2005, a former public-radio colleague — a producer for The Splendid Table, a national program about food issues and enjoyment — asked me to do some consulting.

I seized the opportunity to capitalize on what I had learned about the relationship among the environment, food, and food production.

Last year, at my impetus, we conducted a Web-based survey to see how far our listeners would travel to eat an exclusively regional, organic diet — and later selected 15 individuals to maintain an online blog about their experiences during the yearlong study.

As I worked on that project, I also made a move that I never could have predicted when I shut my business six years ago — I bought a second home in the wilds of the Manzano Mountains in New Mexico.

Once again, I was drawn by longtime passions — in addition to my love of nature, I'm bilingual, and enjoy speaking Spanish and love Latino cultures.

With the help of my old friends at the Raptor Center, and new friends in various organizations, I am preparing for another phase of being a naturalist. I am teaching two weekly nature-studies classes (for pay!) for grades 3 to 5 as part of an after-school enrichment program in Mountainair, N.M.

In the long term, I am working with the Wildlife Center, an education and animal-rehabilitation facility in Espanola, N.M., and my new naturalist friends here to establish a nature center somewhere near Mountainair.

This venture, with multiple objectives for helping kids in the impoverished East Mountain area, will probably take years.

It will depend on patience, time, many volunteers, and donors — even in the "Land of Enchantment."

Friends and acquaintances in their 40s, 50s, and 60s often ask me how I made the transition and what advice could I give them for reinventing themselves.

Here's what I say:

• If you can, start to save and invest money that can be used as a base income while you pursue your dream. I was able to subsidize my transition without dipping into my retirement funds or investments.

  If it is too late for that, you can still think about scaling back your spending, downsizing your living standards, and taking on temporary or part-time paid jobs.

• Look for causes that match your values and passions. In my case, it helped to reflect upon the things that inspired me as a child, many of which revolved around a love of nature.

• Research the organizations you are considering. One of the most effective ways to do that is to talk to other volunteers or students.

  For years before I started my new life, I had been speaking to master gardeners and Raptor Center volunteers at open houses and public events.

• Build on your volunteer experience to learn new skills and create work that will be the most satisfying to you.

  Luckily, all of the organizations I worked for offered volunteer experiences that provided education and rewarded achievement and commitment. In New Mexico, I am applying what I've learned over the last four years to my new projects — which means I can make a greater contribution to the community.

• In the end, follow your gut. I tend to be a bit impulsive, but if I get a tingly, excited feeling in my gut, I know I'm doing the right thing.

Kathleen Davies is an environmental educator and a consultant to the public-radio program The Splendid Table. She can be reached at kdavies94@msn.com.