To Hunt or to Gather?

A recent conversation with a friend sparked the question “Are you a Hunter or Gatherer?”

Immediately I felt drawn to the GATHERER-a person who collects, and searches for a specific purpose.

I gather family together…I gather friends for nights out at the movies…I gather/collect props for my still life photos such as colored leaves, pine cones, foraged goods like alder berries, dried hydrangea, abandoned bird nests…

But I am also a hunter.

I hunt for just the right gift. I hunt for vintage goods. I hunt for knowledge as my mind is ever active and pulls me along like a vine that twists and turns creating even more need to learn and understand.

I sometimes wonder how I might have survived as part of a nomadic tribe…

Would I have taken on the challenge of hunting for food, gathering berries for bannock or would I provide the home and anchor for the hunter to replenish and rest before his desires to master the wild returned?

I decide that I am a cocktail of both the desires of hunting and searching, that irresistible pull of seeking and collecting and making beautiful that which I have gathered, whether that is people, a home, a creative life in photographs.