A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger

Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident 

By my imprecise measure, this is the 100^th chapter of “Naif in the Forest.” Thanks to Jeff Rosalsky, Executive Director of PEEC and Janine Morley, Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator, who support and encourage this effort and have from the beginning. Thanks and hugs to my wife, Kathleen, for her editing, wise suggestions and excellent photographs. 

If I post a photo that should be in an art gallery, it is likely to have been taken by Brad Berger, who also contributes knowledge of wetlands and musk rats. Richard Paterson is an Expert in the Forest and my technical advisor. Violet the Corgi and Topaz the Mini Aussie take me into the forest several times a day. 

Two years ago I told Jeff that I felt like a naïf in the forest, having moved here full time after years of partial residence. Jeff thought that would be a good name for a column. A couple of robust stouts later, the “Naif” was born. I wasn’t sure I could get through an entire year. Then I wasn’t sure about two. I am currently unsure about three. The limitation is within the naïf, not the forest. 

While I have learned much from my extremely superficial research, I have no illusion that I will ever become an expert in the forest. I have great respect for those who know which mushrooms to eat, what bird is singing, which insects pose no danger to humans and which are poisonous or venomous. I also learned the difference between poisonous and venomous. 

I will never master the particulars of nature, but I now hold a greater appreciation of the whole. I am constantly awed by the interconnectedness of squirrel and oak, monarch and milkweed. I have illustrated this chapter with the clear blue sky, taken early in June, a sky made clearer and lighter by the decrease in human activity.

In a time of fear and uncertainly a clear sky above and a natural order below that seems to know what it is doing even if we don’t, is a kind of comfort.