WEBVTT

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Losing your vision doesn't have

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to mean missing out on the chance

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to enjoy a deep connection with nature.

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In this episode, Ed Haines speaks with Ron Peterson,

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who shares his experiences as a tour guide

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for the Tijuana River Estuary in Southern California.

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I'm Ricky Enger, and this is Hadley Presents.

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Welcome to the show, both of you.

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Thank you, Ricky.
Thank you very much.

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It is so good to have you both here.

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Ed, you are an avid gardener

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and I couldn't think of a more appropriate person

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to chat with Ron.

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And Ron, I know you've always had a really deep relationship

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with nature going all the way back to childhood

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as a member of the Boy Scouts.

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And of course, that relationship continues to evolve

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after vision loss.

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You know, I think it helps people so much to hear

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just how incredible nature is

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and that there really is more than one way

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to connect with it.

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So I am very much looking forward

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to hearing about your journey, Ron,

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and how you ended up doing

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what you currently do at the Estuary.

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So yeah, I will turn it over to Ed and Ron.

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Yeah, thanks Ricky, and Ron,

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thanks for being with us today.

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It really, this is a great topic.

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It's really important

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and also a whole lot of fun for me

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just to talk about the natural world.

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Now you work at the Tijuana River Estuary,

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which after doing some research online, it's a large area

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with a lot of unique features, particularly with regard

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to bird and plant life.

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So how did the concept of your tours, you give a tour,

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it's called An Eye-Opening Experience Without Sight,

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and you're a docent and you give a tour

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for folks a couple times a month, I believe.

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So how did that concept of your tour evolve?

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Well, I lost my vision

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about five and a half years ago,

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and I had been working at the Estuary

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for two or three years,

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and that was a very special, a very special experience

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for me working as a volunteer at the Estuary.

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Volunteering is very important to me overall.

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But when I lost my vision, I wasn't able to do some

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of the things I was doing out there, planting native plants

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and removing invasives and working on the trails.

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And that was very frustrating, very difficult for me

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to adjust to, I couldn't do this anymore.

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So I got together a few years ago with the staff

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and we started thinking about different ways

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that I could continue to volunteer.

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And the idea came that how about becoming a docent

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and talking to visitors about the native plants there

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in the estuary in a completely different way

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as a blind person introducing our visitors

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to our native plants

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emphasizing the other four senses besides sight.

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It's a great idea.
It really worked out well.

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It turns out it's very unusual.

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I don't know of any other situation where people do this.

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It's become very popular

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and it has given me a great deal of joy

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sharing with people this experience.

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So it's worked out really well.

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Well, that's great.

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And you know,

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why don't you tell us a little bit about

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how you share the experience of nature with others

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and I think I read somewhere you identify

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something like 40 different plants,

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so that must have accumulating that body

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of knowledge must have been pretty big job to begin with.

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And then communicating that body of knowledge

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to sighted persons is another whole skillset.

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So how does the experience work for folks?

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What do you do when you take them out on the estuary?

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Right.

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Well, it's about a one and a half hour walk,

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nature walk the first Saturday of every month.

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And anywhere from two to 20 visitors show up.

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They go to the website and they find out this opportunity,

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and I give them an introduction to the Tijuana Estuary,

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the history and the management

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and all about the Kumeyaay, the Native Americans

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that were the first people here in the San Diego area.

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And then we walk around for an hour or so,

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and I visit about 15

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or 18 different plants, the ones

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that I think are the most interesting.

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Okay.
And what happens is, I mean,

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these plants are beautiful to look at,

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but also, they all feel different.

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They have different textures

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and the leaves are different.

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And they have different veins and different shapes

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and different margins, edges.

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And also many of them have distinct smells.

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And some of them even have sounds like the bladder pod.

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They have these pods that rattle and you shake them.

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Okay.
And the cottonwoods,

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when the wind is blowing, there's kind of

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a wonderful sound, kind of a whispering sound

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that comes from the leaves

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and the bees in the lemonade berry, the buzzing.

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So it's really about how they feel.

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It's about how they smell and how they sound.

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So I've learned, when I worked at the Estuary

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before I lost my vision,

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I learned quite a few plants by sight,

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but then a few years ago I said, you know what?

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I'm gonna learn how to identify

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and enjoy these plants with these other senses.

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So I worked on that for a while.

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So that's how we were able to put this together.

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Well, that's fantastic.

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You know, I actually live near a nature sanctuary

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and I'm always amazed that folks speed through it

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when they're touring it

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or there's even a drive.

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They can drive through it.

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They never get outta their car.

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You know, they may roll down a window occasionally,

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and even the walking trails, people don't take their time

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to really interact with the plant life in ways

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that it sounds like you're introducing.

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So I'm just curious, you know, what do people come away from

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that experience on your nature walk?

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What are some of the things they come away with

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and do they learn anything about themselves?

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Well, one thing I do

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during the walk is I always take three or four minutes,

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we stop at one of the most beautiful plants.

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It's the California sage brush.

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And right about there, I stop for five minutes

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and talk to the people about blindness.

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And how the experience that I'm sharing

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with them is important to, many of my visitors are blind.

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I have special tour groups that come in that are blind.

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So I explain how this experience can help the sighted

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appreciate nature with all senses, all of the senses,

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and how the blind community can learn

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to appreciate nature without sight.

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So I think that's something that I share

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with my visitors and they walk away

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with a better appreciation of

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how the blind can still enjoy life by taking advantage

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of these other senses

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and how the sighted community can enjoy life more

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by taking care of all five senses.

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Does that make sense?
It does.

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And it's almost like you're saying, you know,

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mother nature kind of invented the concept

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of universal design, right?

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There's something there for everybody.

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Yeah.
That's fantastic.

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I did wanna ask you, Ron, just briefly, what sort

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of advice would you give to folks

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who maybe have lost some vision

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and who also really value being immersed in nature,

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whether it's getting out hiking, backpacking,

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or doing whatever it is they do.

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And what advice would you give

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to folks if they're concerned

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that future vision loss will inhibit that ability?

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You've obviously overcome that issue

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and you haven't let vision get in your way

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of experiencing nature.

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So what advice would you give to folks who are concerned

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that that might be a problem?

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Well, you know, for me,

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it's partly about getting back to nature that has helped me,

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but it's also about the spirit of giving,

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that volunteer spirit.

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And that's something that I learned from my father

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when I was very young.

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He instilled in me the love of nature

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and also the spirit of giving.

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And so most of my life I've tried to

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be involved in volunteer activities.

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So what that did for me is when I lost my vision,

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I kind of reconnected with that concept.

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I was pretty depressed for about a year or so.

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For most of a year,

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I was kind of down in the dumps having lost my vision.

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But what happened was I reconnected with my love

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of nature and this value

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that he instilled in me of volunteering.

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By putting those ingredients together, it really helped me

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to become, for my life, become more full.

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And I think that's a lesson for other people

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when they lose their vision, just giving to others can kind

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of help you get away from your own problems

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and to think about others.

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And then I think it's about thinking, what are your skills?

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What are your various interests?

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In my case, it was love of nature

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and combining that with the spirit of giving

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and the spirit of giving is kind of the special sauce.

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And I think that helped me to overcome

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that initial period.

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And I think it could help others as well.

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Ron, it's a really great concept, that idea

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of not just being a passive participant in nature,

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but taking an active role.

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And it sounds like being active in nature

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and giving back to the natural world

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and to other people has helped you maintain your exposure

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to nature itself, which is just a wonderful idea.

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So thank you very much for that.

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There's a couple of other elements

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to the equation that helped me.

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Not just the, I mean the spirit of giving is kind

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of a special sauce, but the love of nature,

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also, I learned to reach out and ask for help.

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And that's something that I wasn't really

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as good at as I should have been.

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But that's something that's very important to someone

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who becomes blind, is knowing to ask for help.

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Also, my relationship with the Braille Institute,

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I learned many of the tools to get along as a blind person.

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And Hadley was a huge help to me to help me

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learn the various tools to get along with outside.

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But the special sauce in all of this, to me, has been

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the spirit of giving, of helping others

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that I learned from my father many, many years ago.

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Well, that's just great advice

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and thanks for mentioning Hadley.

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I'm glad we've been of some help.

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And when you mentioned the Braille Institute,

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they have an office in San Diego, so that's wonderful.

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They could assist you.

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And speaking of assistance, that's a great segue.

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I do know from having seen your videos,

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you do have a dog guide.

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So I just was curious about, you know, the role

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of your dog guide in your tours

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and how having a dog guide has maybe helped you

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stay active in the natural environment.

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Well, I'm glad you asked.

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That's Gidget.

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Gidget has been my guide dog now for over two years.

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She's an amazing animal.

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I highly recommend the guide dog for folks.

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We go hiking in the estuary together,

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Gidget and I, also, the Estuary

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is about almost a mile from our house.

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So every time I go to the estuary,

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she gets me there and back.

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But during the walk itself,

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a guide dog goes one speed, guide dog speed,

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whatever that speed might be.

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And, you know, when I'm leading the group,

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we're kind of strolling.

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So I heal her during the hike.

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And I worked there for so many years, so I know my way

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around pretty well, almost by memory and by feel.

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And then once in a while, I'll take the elbow

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of someone if I get a little bit confused.

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So I'm healing my guide dog while I'm doing the nature walk.

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But she gets me there and she gets me back home.

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And also, she and I go for hikes

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and in the Estuary together often.

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She's living her best life as a guide dog.

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I can tell you that.

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That's wonderful.
She loves it there

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almost as much as I do.
Yeah, I'm sure she does.

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And I just had two part question really.

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And it's about your functional adjustment to vision loss,

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and then about your need for a natural environment

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and your ability to participate fully

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in that environment again after your vision loss.

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I'm just curious, it's kind of chicken

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or the egg type of question.

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Did your need

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to participate in the natural environment drive your need

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to acquire adjustment skills like cane training

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or using a dog guide?

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Or did acquiring those skills then enable you to return back

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to the natural environment, or did it all happen together?

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That is a good question.

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I'd have to say both.

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I love to be out in nature and walking around,

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and that's one of the reasons I got a guide dog.

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And so, yes, the need for being out in nature

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led me to develop additional skills,

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or in this case, obtain a guide dog.

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But also this dog's helped me do things

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that I wouldn't normally do.

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Like, for example,

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I'm much more comfortable about taking the trolley

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and the bus and going into downtown San Diego

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with the guide dog.

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But I guess it was probably the need for nature,

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for being with nature.

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That actually was one of the reasons

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that I got the guide dog.

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Interesting.

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Okay.

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That's an answer to my question.

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That's what I was curious about.

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Is there anything else you'd like to tell our listeners

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or tell folks who have lost some vision, who'd like

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to get back out there and experience the natural world?

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I would sure recommend that people get out

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and to the nearest park or go for hikes.

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You can find someone to help you with a hike,

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get a guide dog, learn cane skills.

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There's so much out there to smell,

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to touch, to hear.

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It's not just about sight.

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So that would be my advice to others

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and it sure helped me.
Perfect.

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Thank you, Ron.
Yes.

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Thank you, Ron.

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It really sounds like,

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and maybe you experienced nature this way before,

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but really leaning into that,

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so leaning into it isn't just about what you're looking at,

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it's what you're hearing, it's what you're smelling,

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what you can touch.

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It feels like a much deeper relationship with nature.

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And so if people are struggling

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with their vision loss journey, it's definitely,

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it can come out of the blue for some people

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and it's not an easy adjustment.

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But I loved what you said about

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paying attention to what you're finding in nature,

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going on these hikes,

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and in your case, giving back to people, leaning into that,

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that helped you to stop thinking about the woe is me

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parts of it, which I really think people will appreciate.

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Ron, thank you so much for stopping by

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and sharing your story.

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And the next time I'm in Southern California,

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I certainly hope to come and enjoy your tour.

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Yeah, me too.
I would love

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to have both of you.

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Well, I'll give you both a special tour

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of these beautiful native plants of Southern California.

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Wonderful.

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Thank you so much.

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Share your thoughts about this episode of Hadley Presents,

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or make suggestions for future episodes.

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Send us an email at podcast@hadleyhelps.org.

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