I'm very lucky to have had jobs close to nature -- even in cities. I have worked at provincial parks, and at a city museum with a nature preserve and as a guide for the snowshoe department at a local ski hill. All of them allowed me the chance to go outside and watch and listen to birds, and look out for furry creatures. I have seen moose cross the front yard, a fisher (a large weasel) lounging in the tree outside the office, deer cropping grass just over the hill, a muskrat ferrying grasses to its nest in the marsh bank down the path, rabbits looking scared as I biked past them on my way to and from work.

The museum I now work for is near the aforementioned, small marsh. In the summer, if I'm feeling at all stressed, I go down there for my little dose of nature. It's a great spot because of the water, which attracts a lot of different birds as well as turtles (some of which were dumped there, by people who didn't want them anymore) , goldfish (ditto), and frogs. I also get the occasional glimpse of a snake or toad. I consider toads way cuter than their reputations would make them out to be. So squat and knobby and blending in with the background, their round, protruding eyes looking everywhere but at you, they remind me of quiet little kids who don't want attention drawn to themselves, so they sit, squished down and unobtrusive, until the moment when they can't wait any longer and have to leap for safety.

These jobs and their idyllic settings are one reason I have been been able to bear not being able to afford traveling often. They give me the gift of a hundred opportunities to escape, if only for a few minutes in a day. The birds wing overhead, frogs chant, muskrats paddle, fish leap for an insect, none of them bothered by my presence for long. All of them living their short lives as best they can, because that's all they know how to do.