Live Life Your Way

Mary Warner

It’s 6:30 AM and Mary Warner is out her cottage door again. The retired professor is making her rounds of the lush greenbelts of Wesley Palms. With binoculars in hand, she’s looking to spot the Black Phoebe she hears.

As a teacher of childhood development, Mary fell in love with children’s sense of awe and wonder for the world. It’s clear she learned a thing or two from them.

“Find your joy and muse and stick with it,” she says smiling.

Mary found hers as a young girl growing up in rural northern Ohio. Guided by her mother’s love for nature, she started listening for the calls of birds. And once you start, according to Mary, you can never stop.

Her passion has recently taken her to Trinidad with Elderhostel, an adventures-in-learning club. In the southern Caribbean, so close to the equator, Mary was able to see birds from both halves of the world. Birds, she reflects matter-of-factly, that she will probably never see again.

But unlike others, Mary doesn’t collect a list of the birds she has identified over the years. It’s too much to worry about. To some, the “life list” can actually become more important than the experience itself.

Mary doesn’t need a list. She knows what she’s seen. What appears to be more important is the next bird calling, not the last. And it’s this carefree nature combined with a schoolteacher’s love for learning that’s so alluring about her.

Birds have long been a symbol for freedom, and Mary’s pursuit of them is a testimony to hers. Three-and-a-half years ago, she was doing all of the house and yard work on her 1.5-acre, 8-room Lakeside, California home. She realized it was too much, and made the decision to be free of it all.

She discovered a one-bedroom garden cottage at Wesley Palms. Her new home was nestled amidst 40 acres of mature landscaping that features old-growth trees and over 100 species of plants.

It didn’t take long to start hearing the calls. Maybe a second or two.

With all of the mundane chores taken care of, it’s an ideal set-up. Her home is now something much more important: a home base. You get the feeling the doors’ hinges are well used. It’s perfect. In fact, it’s enviable.

“It’s almost embarrassing, but I can handle it,” she chuckles.

She plays golf three times a week, hikes, camps and travels the world. According to Mary, if you’re the outdoors type, there are jillions of things to do. And if she wants she can shut her door and close off the world too.

It’s a way of life she recommends to her friends whole-heartedly, with one admonition:

“Don’t wait too long. Do it while you can.”