The Ecosystem Gardener is a Bad Ass

Over the years I’ve been invited to speak at many conferences about Ecosystem Gardening and how we can all learn to make healthier choices in our gardens and create welcoming habitat for wildlife in our landscapes. And I love sharing what I know and meeting other passionate wildlife gardeners.

For example, my good friend Pat Sutton and I will be speaking on March 24 at the Pinelands Short Course, presenting a full day of programming about creating wildlife habitat gardens. I’m so excited that we’ll be sharing the stage this day. I spoke at this conference last year as well, and I was truly excited by the enthusiasm of this group of people for learning to share their space with our local wildlife.

I’m so excited that I’ll be returning to the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden this June 20 and 21 to present a two-day workshop about Ecosystem Gardening for Wildlife. And I’ve got some other exciting things to tell you about later as well.

But I have to say that I’ve received one invitation to speak that is quite a stretch for me, and WAY outside my comfort zone.

The Bad Ass Conference is all about living a life of no excuses, and its speaking line-up is filled with some really amazing people who have overcome some serious obstacles in their lives and created some really successful businesses when the odds were against them.

And next week I’ll be participating as a speaker in that conference.

Why is this a stretch?

Well, for one it’s not about wildlife gardening, native plants, or sustainable landscaping which are some of the topics I usually get invited to speak about.

It’s about a life-changing event that altered the course of my life (which led to my being here with you). But it’s personal. And I never imagined talking freely about it publicly before now.

I haven’t talked about this in public very much, but I did allude to it once in these pages when I answered the question “Where is MY Garden?” And I wrote about it a little more fully at another site of mine in “A Man Named Earl.”

And that was supposed to be it. I had spilled the beans, so I figured I’d never need to address it again.

That is until Jess Commins, the co-founder of the Bad Ass Project, stumbled across that post about Earl, and invited me to participate. Suddenly I had a whole lot of thinking to do. Mainly, what was I so afraid of?

So I thought and thought, and I decided that I had set my goal for this year to be open to new opportunities, so I better pay attention here It took me the better part of an afternoon to think, and then I decided to take the plunge. I know, I know “Be Careful What You Ask For” and all that stuff.

The Bad Ass Conference is completely free to attend and will take place live and online next Thursday and Friday. January 26th and 27th, 2012.

I hope you’ll come join me because it would be nice to know there’s some friendly faces out there! Plus, the list of other speakers is filled with some of my favorite online personalities, and I’m so honored to be listed in their company. I’m ready to be inspired. How about you?

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