Full at http://blog.cheapmotelsandahotplate.org/2011/05/05/ten-years-on-the-road-part-two/
"I grew up in western Pennsylvania. There were woods nearby, and while I often played in them, their wonders---the trees and birds, the changing seasons---escaped me. I never asked why the robins flocked to the neighbor’s yard in the spring or marveled at the bushes glistening in the sun after an ice storm. I didn’t know that the entire landscape had long ago been shaped by modern industry and mining, which cut down the forests, dredged the rivers, and polluted the air. If you asked me what was beautiful, I might have said a 1954 Cadillac or a new baseball mitt.
Karen was different. She noticed her woods. She loved to go to her neighbor’s pond and to the nearby creek, catching tadpoles and waiting excitedly for the first ice to form so she could crack it with her shoes. She picked wild flowers and berries and observed the birds and deer. She had a discerning eye and an inquiring mind, always wondering why. Her uncles had a farm, and she knew where her family’s milk and meat came from. We lived on a farm for a few years, in a house my parents rented from the farmer, and all I remember is how afraid I was of the chickens. . . ."