About Tara Hudson

Let me tell you a short story about sharing nature from childhood…

… The young girl and her dog Jojo-Minnie, lived in a stone house with her 2 younger sisters and her mum and dad. The stone house that her mum and dad built was snuggled into its own valley surrounded by acres of rainforests, gardens, small orchards and fresh water creeks and dams.

The land was a wonderland that the little girl explored daily, often with her dog Jojo-Minnie. One morning the little girl and her dog went for a walk up the creek, this was one of their favourite things to do, just wandering up the stream exploring all the little water pools and rock hopping their way to adventure. Often they would stop for hours at certain spots and play in the water and watch the little insects buzz across the water and find cosy spots to rest and listen to the forest sounds.

Jojo-Minnie loved being with the little girl because she always took her on long walks and let her discover too. Sometimes Jojo-Minnie would get so excited that she would run ahead to sniff out nature and the girl would call out to Jojo-Minnie to wait for her, and Jojo-Minnie would stop for a moment but then still run on ahead, until the little girl would remember her dog training skills and call out, actually ‘Sit Minnie Sit’, and being such a good dog Jojo-Minnie would obediently sit and wait and the little girl would catch up to her best friend.

She too was excited to be in nature exploring and sometimes she would be ahead of her dog and then she would wait for her and then give her a big hug and pat and laugh as Jojo-Minnie’s tail would waggle so much. Many times the little girl and the dog would just sit together in nature feeling loved and if the little girl was ever sad or lonely Jojo-Minnie would come in sitting close and wrap her neck around the little girls neck, and they would make little hmmm sounds together until their smiles returned, it was the best kind of hug the little girl knew. She felt very lucky to have such a wonderful friend.

On this particular morning the little girl was going to visit her favourite tree, although she didn’t know it at the time when she began her walk, that was where she was going to go. Now this tree wasn’t just a tree, it was a tree that had grown most of it’s life with a very very close friend, much like the little girl had with her dog Jojo-Minnie. The little girl’s family all loved visiting this tree together, it was regularly one of their land walks, actually it was a creek walk to get to this tree. The family would often walk up the creek to be with this tree, and wonder in amazement at the magic of nature that had created this, and here it was right in their very own homeland!  It showed such an extraordinary symbiosis with it’s natural environment, that it reminded the humans of their oneness. They would always return to their stone house somehow more connected and renewed.

On this morning the little girl had found herself exploring up the creek and as she got further along, her thoughts naturally turned to the tree and she started thinking about whether to visit the tree, until the thought grew so loud, and her legs just keep on going up the creek, towards the tree. It was like the tree was calling to her to visit, her heart felt warm and so she let herself enjoy the tree’s invitation. Jojo-Minnie was also very happy to go on this longer walk today and she loved how happy the little girl was in nature, and how there were so many different smells and creatures to explore around this tree. It was a special place to be, being with the Magic Fig Tree that grows on top of a very big rock!