Location: Cedar Falls, Iowa.
I am beginning this journey again with the first prairie I fell in love with.
This is the tallgrass prairie at the University of Northern Iowa, now called the Daryl Smith Prairie, in Cedar Falls, Iowa. I used to walk these trails essentially every day in the summertime for the full five and a half to six years I lived in CF. Now, it makes sense to me that this was the place I would go to recommit to my own healing and grounding in my early, emotionally wrought twenties. I am so thankful for the prairie.
I was only in Iowa for a little over twenty four hours this time around. I had to go to Cedar Rapids for one of my last appointments in Iowa. I don’t have words to explain the feeling I had in my gut, but there was something in me that said I needed to go up to Cedar Falls and look at the restored tallgrass prairie of my younger self.
Now, I haven’t lived in Cedar Falls for over two years. I remember when I moved in late April of 2019 to CR how I knew I’d need to find something akin to this restored tallgrass. I felt healthy, rooted, and grounded while walking through the tallgrass, watching kestrels and other small falcons fly overhead. I did not find an equivalent to the Daryl Smith Prairie until I was introduced to the Sac and Fox Natureway in 2020. The first time I saw Rompot, I felt a deep stillness of recognition. Walking here is good for me. These cone flowers and beautiful reedy looking grass is good for all of us.
I am so grateful for this place that nurtured me for over half a decade.
It is from this place I begin the #100Days project again.
