Tag: #protectwhatyoulove

@EmyMinzel

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Stacy Crep ~ Adventure Sister

This is nuts! Did you know squirrels plant our forests?

January 20, 2019January 18, 2019 emyminzel

You may not know this about me, but I am a huge animal lover. Of course, I love dogs and cats, but I love all animals. Even gators, lions, tigers, bears and more! I often sit at my kitchen table to write. I have a wonderful view of the wildlife that surrounds our house. I choose to feed the birds and critters all year long; because they bring me peace while I watch them out my window. I get to enjoy seeing wild turkeys, possums, raccoons, deer, squirrels and lots of birds! It’s like my own wildlife reality show.

Raccoon

Heard of deer

Possum on the porch

Not long ago I was reading an article, on the National Wildlife Federation blog spot, that stated a great many of the trees in our forests are planted by squirrels! I suppose it makes sense. If a squirrel does not dig up the acorn, they hid in the Fall by that Spring, that it would probably sprout. I never put the two together before but knowing this has brought a much greater appreciation for squirrel shenanigans than I have had previously.

Every place the Adventure Sisters camp, the squirrels are always the first to visit us. A couple of years ago while my husband and I were camping with Stacy and Marty, we were all woken by a feisty red squirrel throwing pine nuts onto our kayaks we had stored under his tree. I am sure the squirrel was just throwing them onto the ground, so it could more easily gather them for safe keeping later. Each time it dropped one, it sounded like a small firecracker going off at 6 am.

Marty called out to my husband from his tent. “Is that you Jay?” my husband replied; “Nope. It’s the squirrels pelting us with pine nuts.” Jason had woken up early and was reading a book in his camping chair, just watching the whole situation go down. At the urging of our campsite critters, we all decided it was just time to get up and enjoy the morning too.

Squirrels make me laugh as they hang upside down raiding the bird feeders, no matter where I try to put them. They will chase each other and do acrobatics all over the porch and in the yard. Squirrels have also learned to communicate with me through the windows. I swear they peak right into my window, holding their little paws together as if they are praying. Then look at me with their big adorable eyes and seem to say; “Excuse me Mama, but the feeder is empty, and we would all like some more.” As I imagine them speaking in a Tiny Tim voice.

It just goes to show, that all animals on this planet have a purpose. From the pollinating bees to the eagles in the trees. The squirrels that reside in the live oaks of the south or the mighty pines of the north; are all a huge asset to our forest environment. Our forests produce oxygen that keeps us alive, provides shelter, prevents soil erosion, filter groundwater, and give us beautiful views. Squirrel should probably be every environmentalist mascot if you ask me!

I fully believe that all animals are sentient beings with thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Any animal that can show fear, can also show affection. If cats and dogs can express their selves, then so can any other animal. If you take time to observe them, you can see it too. I like to respect all animals, as I do any other living being, because we are all here for a reason.

By giving the squirrels the space, they need to feel safe and help them put food in their bellies; I feel like I am doing a small part to help keep our little piece of forest alive and show my appreciation. They are giving me way more than I give them. I hope this blog helps you see the magic in all the critters we have been blessed to share this planet with. They are helping us and the planet!

Wishing you an abundance of magical blessings!

With love,

Emy Minzel ~ Adventure Sister

@EmyMinzel

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Stacy Crep ~ Adventure Sister

*pictures taken at my home in Princeton, MN.

I have learned what is important to me.

October 19, 2018October 18, 2018 emyminzel

I have learned what is important in life to me, after learning some lessons the hard way. Losing friendships and failed relationships have taught me a lot about what is important as I travel through life. I have taken for granted, very important people in my life, only to regret it after it was too late to do anything. Losing my grandparents within a month of each other was a giant slap to my ego. I learned some major life lesson’s the hard way, for a few years after that.

The saying “You don’t know what you got until it’s gone.” Had significant meaning to me after these tragic events. I did not get to tell my grandmother, to her face, how much I truly looked up to her and that I believed she was a real-life hero. I did not get to thank her for her the love and kindness that helped shape who I had become. As a writer, I am much more comfortable writing out my feelings then expressing them with my voice. Yet, these experiences have taught me I must use ‘my voice’ when it is important for me to do so.

It is important, that I let the people I love, know just how much I love them and why. Many people in the world are sensitive, self-conscious and really do wonder if they are truly loved. I spent time, running circles in my own head, when I was younger wondering what made me worthy of love? Did just being born mean that I was entitled to love? I had a long and difficult journey, in my youth, learning just how to love myself. Learning how to give myself the respect and significance, I often gave freely to others, yet didn’t feel worthy of myself. In time, I found what I was looking for. Me. I was there all along.

I am grateful I have learned to love my perfectly imperfect self. That was because I also learned how to love others unconditionally first. I learned that nobody is perfect, and I should not expect myself to be either. I learned that I love other people’s imperfects just as much as I love the things they are really great at. My daughter is sometimes too shy to come out of her shell. When I see her acting this way I think; “I wish she knew just how wonderful she truly is. She is so smart, kind, witty, generous and has a heart of gold. I wish she could see herself as I see her.” I often wonder what others see when they see me. Do you?

I have learned what matters and is important to me; is that I let others know the wonderful qualities I see they possess. I have learned to appreciate my own mother, so much more, after the death of my grandparents. I am an only child, like my daughter. I learned what it felt like to have your one and only child move out and grow up. Never once, when I was younger and moving out on my own, did I even think of my mom’s feelings about the situation. I was so excited to be moving on with my life that I didn’t even realize she was also beginning a new journey herself.

Learning to appreciate the experiences of my elders, like my mother, is also important to me. I would much rather learn some lessons through the experiences of others, especially if they are difficult ones. Learning that with age comes wisdom, was a turning point for me. I started to reach out to others more experienced then I. Life experiences are meant to be shared; sometimes they help you and other times you can use your experiences to help others.

Another value that is important to me is connection. To feel heard, to be appreciated for who I truly am. I have learned to always try my hardest to be ‘authentically me.’ I have learned that when I’m not me, when I try to fit in and follow the heard, life gets more difficult. It became of utmost importance to me, to listen to my heart and the callings of my soul. It was difficult at times, but I never felt more purposeful in my life then when I started to truly be me. Quirky humor, type ‘A’ personality, Nature loving hippie chick, who really wanted to let my light shine.

I wanted that light to shine in a way that helped others the same way I had learned from the strong women in my life. I wanted to pay it forward and decided that if I wanted to change the world, I had better work on myself first. So, I did. I started looking within for the answers instead of searching for external direction. I figured out that nobody knew what I needed, to feel fulfilled, but me. I just had to ask myself the hard questions and hold myself accountable for the changes I wished to see.

It became important to me to practice kindness. To share my love for life, the planet and for others in a way that felt good and healthy. I started by gardening organic produce. Working to learn about and implementing Permaculture practices around my home. I wanted to nurture the Earth as she nurtured me. I learned to respect my mother’s opinion instead of rolling my eyes like a teenager. I learned that my young daughter had more wisdom then she led on. I learned I was also full of wisdom I could chose to use as well.

I learned that my husband’s commitment to me was the foundation I depend on to be brave enough to shine my light in the political arena. Without him offering a safe place to fall, I would have not felt comfortable enough to put myself ‘out there.’ I have learned to not take this very special relationship for granted. I have learned to be better at keeping up relationships by taking responsibility for contacting my friends and family instead of waiting for the phone to ring. I do this because my relationships are important to me.

People are important to me; my family, friends, community and the strangers (friends) I do not know yet revolving on this planet around me. We are all connected on this big old Globe. I see that we have so much more in common then we could ever have in differences. I work to shine my light to promote peace, community and working together.

This is me. I have learned that it is okay to be as me, as I can be, while loving others for who they truly are as well. Warts and all. I truly believe most people are good in their souls, they just have to choose to foster the good and utilize it. I do my best to do the same. It is connection that is most important to me, not money or power. It is the divine spark of life within that connects us all that I like to promote in myself and others. This is what I find most important.

Empowering others to be as authentic as possible to themselves is what powers me to be and do better every day. The good in me, sees the good in you!

What is most important to you?

Wishing you an abundance of joyful blessings,

Emy Minzel ~ Adventure Sister

EmyforHouse.com

@emyminzel

@EmyforHouse15A

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Stacy Crep ~ Adventure Sister

Taken for granted

October 15, 2018October 15, 2018 emyminzel

Today I am up in northern Minnesota in Beaver Bay for a fall weekend wedding. I am attending this wedding with my daughter, who is in the ceremony. The bride is a young woman I have known since she was born, the year before my daughter. I am so excited to see her walk down the aisle in such a beautiful setting. The trees are at their peak color and look like Candy Corn on the shores of beautiful Lake Superior. The weather is chilly, but the scenery and company are amazing.

On the way up to the North Shore with my daughter, we stopped in Duluth for some food, then decided to take our time to see a few sights. We stopped at the Split Rock Light House, so we could take a hike down to the rocky shores of our beautiful Great Lake. My daughter said she had never been to Duluth and it was her first time to see Lake Superior.

This realization made me feel like I had failed my daughter somehow! I am from northern Minnesota on the Iron Range side. We have always gone to visit family, just skimming by Duluth/Superior area, to get to where we were going on holidays or family reunion trips. Yet as close as we had been, I had never taken her to see the majestic and stunning scenery of what the North Shore of Lake Superior had to offer.

I am a Boundary Waters girl, I like to rough it, because I enjoy the peace and solitude that comes with being in the middle of God’s country. My daughter is not a ‘roughing it’ kind of girl. She likes plumbing and the internet with a warm bed to sleep in. It had never occurred to me that I had never brought her to this more populated, yet still environmentally beautiful, area that Minnesota has to offer.

What stuns me even more is that it took me 25 years to realize that I had taken the Minnesota, I had grown up knowing, for granted! I had not found the time to share my experiences with my daughter when she was younger. As I expressed my thoughts to my daughter I said:

“I feel like I somehow failed you as a Mother! I did not show you ‘why’ I love Minnesota as much as I do. I took it for granted, somehow thinking you just didn’t enjoy the outdoors as much as I do.”

My heart felt so heavy at this realization. Yet I was thankful to have the opportunity to be in the moment, standing on the boulders of Lake Superior, with my favorite person on the Planet.

She said. “Mom, to be fair, I probably would not have appreciated it or enjoyed it as much as I am now.”

My eyes filled with tears I did not let fall. I did not want her to see me so emotional about my inner strife. We were in fact having a great time exploring and enjoying the large waves crashing around us, as we carefully navigated the rocky shores of Lake Superior.

Instead I told myself. “This has got to change! I need to take initiative to show my baby girl; ‘why’ I really do love Minnesota as much as I do.”

From this moment forward, I will not take for granted the beauty of the State I love so much. We have plans to explore Minnesota together a lot more often now. It is because I love Minnesota so much that I am willing to change my comfortable life working from home to go work in St. Paul at the Capital.

My goal is, and always has been, to protect the Minnesota we know and love for future generations.

My goal is to work to protect and restore the nearly 50% of Minnesota’s waters that are already too polluted to eat the fish from. My goal is to protect our waters from further pollutions like the mining proposals that could devastate the Northeastern Region on Minnesota.

I totally know that Northern Minnesota is not ‘in my district’ as the central Minnesota Representative of 15A. But as a State Representative, I would get a vote. I get a voice and a say and I am going to use it to protect ALL of Minnesota. So that I can spend more time showing my daughter the beauty Minnesota truly holds. Before our Lake resources are taken for granted and spoiled for the future. You can bet your butt I will fight my heart out for the blessings of my district as well.

My goal is to not make the same mistake, I had made with my daughter, and allow a whole State to take for granted the natural beauty and clean water we have been blessed with. My goal is to remind others of what we stand to lose if we proceed with the usual money hungry politics; bending to the will of forgein industry that does not respect or care what happens to Minnesota.

I will remind you that Sulfide-Copper Mining has a 90% failure rate with its contamination containment areas around the world. Leading to 500 years of pollution. Basically forever.

Five Hundred years of generation after generation not allowed to play on the shores of our beautiful great Lake Superior. Never will Adventure Sisters Stacy and I be able to Adventure in the BWCA without worry of getting sick. Multiple Generations before the most visited National Park in the Nation, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, will be able to again host the millions of nature lovers that come to seek the peace and solitude of God’s Country. Well past yours, mine and any of our grandchildren’s lifetimes, before it’s safe again to use.

All because we took our biggest blessing of fresh water for granted for the promise of (maybe a) couple hundred jobs. Like stepping over a $100 bill to pick up a quarter. It just does not make sense to me. I refuse not to learn from this life lesson! I must learn from this heart-breaking and eye-opening experience of taking things for granted with my daughter.

Although I was sad to learn this lesson, it was delivered to me in the kindest way possible. A lesson through Joy, a blesson. I was having a fabulous time, spending girl time with my only child when Spirit kindly guided this realization to me for a reason. I must remember to count my blessings and move forward, vowing to not let this happen again.

Adventure on my friends. Remember do not take your blessings of family and healthy environment for granted. We would and will truly miss them when they’re gone.

Wishing you an abundance of joyful blessings,

Emy Minzel ~ Adventure Sister

EmyforHouse.com

@emyminzel

@EmyforHouse15A

Follow the Adventure Sisters on Facebook!

Stacy Crep ~ Adventure Sister

Protect what you love

September 3, 2018 emyminzel

I have lived in Minnesota my whole life. I have traveled some but not nearly as much as I like to yet. However, every time I leave home, I come back with a renewed appreciation for my State. Minnesota may be known as the land of 10,000 lakes but there are over 11,000.

I was lucky enough to be raised in the beauty of Northern Minnesota on the Iron Range. I then moved to a much more populated area of Coon Rapids (a suburb of Minneapolis) where I would graduate from High School. I have since settled in an area of Central Minnesota known for family farms and country living. I love the quiet country life that city of Princeton has to offer.

Throughout my lifetime, no matter where I have lived, there was always one common theme that happened in our short Minnesota summers. We were all headed to the lake or goin’ North for the weekend to enjoy what I now call our ‘Minnesota Way of life’.

It didn’t matter if you were well off or just making a living. Most people had a cabin to retreat or a family camp somewhere on a Minnesota lake “Up North”. I am a water baby to the point that my husband calls me the Queen of the Hydration Nation. He understands how much I appreciate water and especially water quality.

The Minnesota way of lake life that includes; clean drinking water, fishing, boating, camping, canoeing, hiking and swimming was (and still is) something that I truly enjoy! The beauty Minnesota offers is unmatched in any of the places I have been. We have four seasons which push us to enjoy each of them in different ways. Even when it is below zero temperatures, us hearty Minnesotan outdoor enthusiasts choose to go ice fishing on our lakes, or skiing and sledding.

I notice that most of our recreation revolves around the blessings of our most valued natural resource; our abundance of clean WATER.

I have learned to water ski, tube, fish, canoe, kayak and have made many happy memories that included our Minnesota way of life. Once I learned one fact about my beloved State though; I absolutely knew in my soul I must do something (anything) to protect the Minnesota that I know and love for future generations.

This fact is that; (according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency) over 40% of our water in Minnesota is too polluted to swim in or eat the fish out of. This is almost HALF of our 11,000 lakes! What? No fishing?!

When I learned that political leaders of Minnesota were considering and might allow toxic mining here in our most pure and precious areas of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and the watersheds of the Great Lake Superior. I thought “How can this be?!”

I could not believe that our “Leaders”, who are supposed to look out for the greater good of the people and the future prosperity of our state, would allow this. They should not be looking for what might make money for right now (or for a short amount of time) if this means poisoning our most precious resources. Our people and our water permanently.

These Sulfide-Ore Copper mines have a bad history of a 90% failure rate and leaving toxic pollution, so devastating, that the areas of contamination are doomed for over 500 years. That’s over six generations of your family that will not be able to enjoy the same beauty of Minnesota that we have grown to know and love.

When these mines fail, as history shows they likely will, Lake Superior would be toxic and unable to support recreational life and tourism as we know it or would the BWCA.

Even though leaders know that Lake Superior holds about 10% of the world’s fresh water. They still seem to want to allow a mine that will undoubtedly pollute it for foreign profit our native Minnesotans will never see. History shows that tax payers get left with the clean-up bill and the devastation of their water tables nearly every time. I believe true leaders always do what is right for the people they are paid to represent.

Therefore, I chose to change my life path drastically to run for the State House of Representatives. I believe I have been divinely guided to this opportunity to run because my intentions are pure. I wish to protect the Minnesota we know and love for ourselves and our future generations.

We must demand that our leaders do not sell us out for profit we will never see. I am just a Minnesota girl standing up to protect what I love.

We must demand that leaders start viewing our environmental protections as a public safety. Without a healthy environment there is not a healthy population. Scientist continually tell us we are on borrowed time (on this planet) if we continue to live in a way that we are.

Poisoning our own water resources for profit seems to be a poor moral decision in my book. We already know most of the State is already suffering from high nitrate levels in our waters, why would it seem like a good idea to risk the water that is still good and healthy?

To me, a true leader looks around, beyond their nose and sees that all over the Nation we are indeed in trouble when it comes to our water. Look around. Flint Michigan without water for years, Chicago now turning off water to public schools. Fracking for natural gas is poisoning water tables all over the place, Florida is seeing costal devastation from human activity.

We are seeing a great deal of drinking water pollution all over the Nation and we need to be proactive at protecting what we love and take for granted here in Minnesota, our water.

Now, like I said, this girl loves water, because we need it to sustain all of life. To me, a leader protects the necessities to live, because that’s their job.

I do like to keep my blogs light hearted and positive but sometimes life forces us to look at things that are not happy. I became interested in politics because of my concern for our environment, turns out they are intrinsically connected.

I am choosing to share what I know, in the only way I know how to do it. I am normally a happy person, but when you mess with my family or what I hold dear, my congeniality disappears, and I will do what I feel is right. Protecting what I love seems to be the right path for me.

I want to win this election, so I can stand up for our environment since the planet cannot talk for herself. I believe it is my purpose of why I was put here on earth. I am sure of it. What matters to me most is to protect our Minnesota way of life and the water I love.

Speaking up when I saw something was not right for the greater good, is what I feel I needed to do. Doing so got me where I am today. I believe Minnesota and the planet still needs more of us to do so.

When will ‘leaders’ start choosing what is right instead of what is good for business?

There is a moral responsibility here. I refuse to give in to the false narrative that says we must choose putting our environment at risk to make a living. I call BS. This is where my campaign slogan “Protect what you love” came from. We deserve better and so do our future generations.

Let us move forward to clean energy solutions as it seems imperative to sustain the Minnesota way of life we know and love.

Thank you for reading my blog today!

Wishing you an abundance of joyful blessings,

Emy Minzel ~ Adventure Sister

http://www.EmyforHouse.com

@emyminzel

@EmyforHouse15A

Follow the Adventure Sisters on Facebook!

Stacy Crep ~ Adventure Sister