Just Natoya

It’s no secret, I feel most at home when out in the wilderness. No not just out in nature, further than that and deeper still, out in the bush surrounded by nothing but the sounds of outdoors and my thoughts.

In a recent discussion with my mother, I was amused to discover I’ve always been this way. Entertained by the fact that my love of/for nature didn’t originate with my choice as an adult to live in a tiny Canadian town. Nature has always called my soul. Being alone outdoors has always beckoned me and presented itself as my great equalizer.

When I was a girl, I would take off in the woods, climbing trees, picking fruit and blissfully wandering all by my lonesome. This was not unique to me. I spent the early years of my childhood in a small Jamaican community. Where people went to the market on Saturday then dressed in their best for church on Sunday. children played outside daily with each other as if it were a right of passage. Those of us who were fortunate had toys bought for them or sent from overseas from a relative. But the rest of us we made do with what we had and crafted our toys out of used juice boxes, Avacodo seeds, bottle tops, grass and corn cobbs to name a few. We didn’t do this because we were aiming to live a sustainable lifestyle. No, we did this because we were poor.

The commodity of money in any household was spent on the necessities of life, not frivolities. We never had a TV until I believe I was about eight years old. And the television we received came to us from a long lost hotelier distant cousin living on the fancy island of St. Croix. It was not new, not big but it was a luxury and colour to boot! I would sit in the Mamee tree, turning the antenna. my sister and I calling back and forth to each other until we had a picture that was clear enough or suitable to watch, Praying the wind didn’t interfere with our hard work.
Before the colour TV came, we would visit our neighbour “Uncle Willy Mac” every weekday evening for a few years to watch the news. he had a black and white television and at 6 p.m. He would turn it on to JBC (Jamaica Broadcast Corporation) I’m not that old but where I grew up seemed to be stuck in time.

I believe these early years were the catalyst to shape the woman I am today. So naturally, When I need the right answers or need to clear my mind. I go out into nature and the deeper the need for clarity the further I go.