(Posted on 17Nov20, John’s 72nd birthday!)

Listening to last week’s sermon via Zoom, our pastor told the story of the talents (salaries) given by a master to 3 different slaves and how they were used. To summarize, the many talents given to the first two slaves were used wisely and doubled in value. However, the single talent given to the third slave was buried by the slave out of fear of losing it, and that slave was punished.

This story from the bible was very confusing to me until it was further explained by our pastor. The main point was that fear often keeps us from doing things in life that we know we can and should do. often due to a lack of confidence in both ourselves and not relying on our faith in God.

I am certainly not advocating that we should make irrational or stupid decisions just because we believe that a higher being will take care of us no matter what happens. However, when we want to take action to fulfill a need that we are passionate about, sometimes we just need to take that “leap of faith”.

A recent example:

In the mid-80’s I purchased 155 acres of wooded, over-grazed property in Hampshire County, West Virginia. In later years I added on 100 and then 182 acres more, always working to improve the property’s capacity for wildlife habitat, clean water and appropriate forest management. It took decades, but I eventually had a small intact ecosystem that was protected by a conservation easement that I donated in the year 2000. At the time of donation, I wrote a document named “Sacred Ground”  that I hung on the wall of my cabin: Sacred Ground

I had originally planned to donate my West Virginia property of 437 acres to a land trust upon my death. In other words, just in case I needed the money from sale of the land while I was still alive, I would be able to do so. It was a “safe” way to “bury” the money out of fear that I just might need it before I passed from this earth. However, this would mean conservation organizations might not benefit from the donation for years, even knowing how many important lands and waters are currently being lost forever due to uncontrolled development. So, after considerable self-reflection and discussion with my wife, we decided to donate the land to the Cacapon and Lost Rivers Land Trust (West Virginia), with the understanding that they would sell the land (with the conservation easement on the land intact, of course) and share the proceeds of the sale with Potomac Conservancy, another land Trust that has a subsidiary headquarters in Winchester. The land was recently sold to a lovely couple from Northern Virginia and, per my request, proceeds from the sale were shared with Potomac Conservancy. Both organizations now have several hundred thousand dollars to help preserve important lands and waters in this area of Virginia and West Virginia. Instead of feeling fear, doing this now instead of later has been a joyous time in my life – donation acknowledgement, award from Cacapon and Lost Rivers Land Trust, and acknowledgement from Potomac Conservancy attached:

Donation acknowlegement – Potomac Conservancy
Cacapon Champion of Conservation Award March 2019
Thanks article in FWS News – Robin West

Past examples:

I’ve been involved in conservation work all of my adult life (see this short bio). When I graduated with a B.S. in Forest and Wildlife and an M.S. in Wildlife Management from Virginia Tech, I became very interested in working in wildlife law enforcement instead of wildlife management or biology. I was warned many times of my bad judgement by people that cared for me, but I “took a leap of faith” and did it anyway. Three years as a Florida State Wildlife Officer turned into a main career of 25 years as a criminal investigator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with duty stations in Maryland, Oregon, Colorado, Washington DC headquarters, Switzerland (loaned to the United Nations), and finally Alaska. All potential assignments were met with well-meaning warnings from friends that risks to my career (and sometimes my life!) were involved. Again, taking a “leap of faith” resulted in a career that was incredibly exciting and rewarding for me, in spite of occasional setbacks that were all part of it. Probably some of the most rewarding work was my 10-year stint in undercover operations in the mid-1980’s. I’m attaching a couple articles written by magazines during those (sometimes too) exciting years, as well as a 2001 article in the Winchester Star about anti-poaching training that I was doing with NGO “WildAid” in Cambodia and other developing countries after I retired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. After leaving WildAid, my final 12 working years were managing my West Virginia property (North River Retreat) as a small business, guiding outdoor activities for the public on the property and (most important) making new friends and absolutely no money to show for it. What an incredible life – I have been so blessed!

Anatomy of a wildlife sting
Animal smugglers
Winchester Star February 2001