Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love.

Once again, it has been too long between blog posts. A lot has happened since my preceding ramblings two months ago. In fact life has been rapidly changing since late 2013 and it shows no signs of slowing up!

 After finishing a ten year tenure in a busy, rewarding job, I started 2014 with a clean slate. It was actually a good job, it’s just that as a lover of nature and being outdoors, I finally woke up to the fact that five days a week sitting behind a computer wasn’t for me.

The truth is, in actual fact, I was being pulled in another direction. Backwards!

Ever since I was a young child, my love for animals was very clear to everyone around me (more on that some other time). My first jobs as a teenager, and in my twenties were as a zoo keeper and wildlife educator: physical, outdoors, communing with nature, animals and the people visiting them. So I listened to the quiet yearning inside of me, and started volunteering in a local fauna sanctuary, because that’s exactly what I was being pulled to do.
 
All romantic memories of my old zoo days went out the window on the very first day. The fact is it’s extremely unglamorous, hard, hot, dirty work. There is a lighter side though, for more insight and a bit of a laugh take a look at Peter Dickinson’s “You know you’re a zookeeper when . . .”
 
So what’s the result of this new venture? I feel stronger and happier, and have so much more energy. I find myself in a particularly upbeat mood on my “vollie” days. When returning home I am exhausted, dirty, smelly and totally fulfilled J usually with a few new bruises of unknown origin and some stories about the cool things I got up to that day.
 
Most of all, I have a huge sense of achievement that, ten years on, I still have what it takes and can be of great value to a bunch of animals and the people who care for them.
 

So, what’s pulling you in a different direction?

 

If you really listen to your heart, it will not lead you astray.

Promise!

 
P.S. for any “Zooies” reading this check out the “You know you’re a zookeeper when” Facebook group

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Photo Sturt’s Desert NP, NSW © Renee Chamberlin 2014 all rights reserved.

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