Thinking about motherhood this week, one of the greatest silver linings of the last year for me has been the unexpected — but magical — opportunity to set some key values that we want to instill into our young son against the epic backdrop of Alaska.
To quietly partner with Mother Nature as his most trusted teacher, with bursts of little lessons that show up with the recurrences of each season in this vivid and vibrant last frontier. Like the wacky, whooping sounds of sandhill cranes, the sudden appearance of moose lurking casually in the yard, and clusters of spiders converging in sunny spots on the deck. In Alaska, during these longer days of sun floods that turn into lavender-colored bedtime skies, Mother Nature home-schools each and every person, her syllabus and curriculum written by time itself.
I’m also quickly discovering that toddlers love stories, and no story feels more poignant to illustrate to ours right now than that of his heritage — the tradition of his ancestors who, each in their own way, found a way to somehow lock in with the fish. Like fractiles, each one gliding out into his own fascinating facet of the seafood industry, a lineage of fishermen in which the most elemental lessons come straight from Mother Nature herself.
- His great-grandfather Robert C. Kallenberg started fishing for salmon from a wooden sailboat and later ended up writing a whole thesis on not only sockeye salmon conservation, but also how to teach its conservation.
- Then his grandpa Walt commercially fished sockeye salmon for decades in Bristol Bay, on a metal boat that he designed and built himself.
- And now his father Arron, my husband and our founder/CEO, who grew up fishing each summer, today through tech and logistics, helps make the bounty of wild-caught Alaskan seafood, on which he was raised, available to families nationwide.
So, when we nourish our son with a species such as salmon, we’re also feeding him the origin story of his heritage — a legacy formed from trusting the fish. Our hope is that by showing him a connection to this incredible food source, his appreciation for it will deepen.
And that is also our hope for you.
Live wild!
Monica
Pictured Above: Mother Nature’s homeroom class in session on Kachemak Bay, where father and son stomp around in the matrix of ripples that come and go with each tide, like fingerprints of stories left by the sea.
