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  elcome
to the Morningstar Nature Refuge web site. I’m Gail Roberson, and I’m an
eastern North Carolina author, columnist and naturalist. In 1993, I opened
this nature education center available to people of all ages because I am
gravely concerned about the state of our planet. It is also a deeply
spiritual journey that leads me to know and understand myself, this earth
and my place in the sacred circle of life.
Everything here is free to the public. I will close
this center before I ever charge admission, for my passion is in making a
difference, not a dime. It is difficult to manage such a challenge
physically, financially and individually, but I cannot come to die and
discover that I have done nothing here but take up space. Everyone must give
something back to the earth in order not to deplete the very planet which
sustains us. A vision and message from a distant Native American ancestor
when I was only ten set the course for my life, and despite many failures
and mistakes, I have kept the dream through the flood, lack of funds and
daily frustrations of every conceivable kind.
Because of my own personal schedule, I ask that you
please make an appointment with me for your visits to Morningstar. It is the
only means of handling three to five thousand of you each year and still
protect my work and personal space.
I believe that one can accomplish much more by walking
softly while doing it. I do walk softly on the earth, but I carry a mighty
sword, and that sword is education about our natural world and our
responsibility towards it. The only thing mightier than the sword is the
pen, and I have over thirty years experience of using this, too, to fight
for the cause of the earth. Hundreds of writing awards prove my skills, yet
it is the reader response about changes they have implemented as a result of
these and the refuge visitors’ comments that fire my burning desire to
continue.
Sometimes I do feel defeated and ask myself why I
continue to worry and work so hard for a purpose that most other humans seem
to have abandoned. But then a small child takes me by the hand, and with
tears in his eyes says, “Don’t worry Miss Gail. We will help you. You teach
us and we’ll keep on for you, for the earth’s sake.” And one of you will
come and learn something or share your own insights, so I can learn from
you, too.
I am just a “seed sower.” I can only hope that I am
planting the seeds for the future deep enough that they will grow tall and
strong and implement the changes in attitudes and actions that the world
needs for a healthier planet…and for our own survival.
I invite you to come visit. But most of all, I
encourage you to find a means of your own in which you can also make a
difference.
Gail Leggett-Roberson |
