Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams

    In Refuge, Terry Tempest Williams strives to tell her story through her homeland, Utah. She begins with the landscape of the land, the Great Salt Lake. From there she describes her relationship with the the birds of the land and the role they play in her life. She moves to her family. She describes their history, ways of life as mormon people and how their history and the history of the land are a part of the other. She ends the story with hope. She chooses to focus on the goodness of the earth rather than others' destruction of it.
    Terry Tempest Williams begins with the Great Salt Lake in Utah. I think she begins this way because the Great Salt Lake is such an integral part of her history. It has become a character in her life, rising and falling with each season of her existence. As it rises and falls, the landscape of her home is changed and the things she loves are endangered.
    One of these things are the burrowing owls by the Bear River Migratory Bird refuge. Terry describes these owls as "Sentries" guarding the cycles of the land. These owls are almost spiritual to her. They represent regularity, dependability, and hope. I think this is why she is so passionate about preserving their life in Utah. Each spring they nest and bring new life to a desert next to a lake that she calls "the liquid lie of the West". They are the epitome of grace. The burrowing owls are a shining light of renewal in a barren land. When her owls' nest is destroyed for a gun club to be built Terry is furious. The nest, a source of life and hope, is to be replaced with a building dedicated to ending life. This represents a defeat to Terry. She was not able to save one of the most important things to her.
  Next, Terry tells the history of her family. She tells of the deep beliefs of her heritage. One of these beliefs is that the history of her family is connected to the land. She says, "I was raised to believe in a spirit world, that life exists before the earth and will continue to exist afterward, that each human being, bird, and bulrush, along with all other life forms had a spirit life before it came to dwell physically on the earth. Each occupied an assigned sphere of influence, each has a place and a purpose." These beliefs influenced her and her family in their treatment of the environment around them.
    Terry ends the story telling of a trip to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge with her gramdmother. On this trip they see ibises. Her grandmother tells her that black ibis symbolize death and white ibis symbolize life. Black ibises fill the field that the tour group is observing. Her grandmother points out that an ibis looks like a heart when it tucks its head under its wing, symbolizing its empathy. Terry then writes in her observation journal, "one-hundred white-faced glossy ibises". In the end, Terry chooses to believe in life and hope in spite of the other's destruction of the environment around her.