by Gretchen Wing
If you’ve seen this year’s Spirit of Lopez Award recipients perform, you’ve felt the joy Susie and Nick Teague project through music. That joy springs from a deep well, and sustains a broad swath of Lopez life.
For co-workers of Susie and Nick, the award’s description sounds spot-on: “Nominees are…friendly, caring, reliable, helpful, unselfish, loving, generous and tolerant,” and have “worked to improve the lives of the people on Lopez.” Individually and together, Nick and Susie do exactly that, and do it smiling.
Eighteen months after the Teagues became Lopezians in 2005, Susie became co-director of Lopez Children’s Center. According to then co-director Ann Goss, “Susie helped teachers and parents to approach everyday problems with practical and loving solutions.” In 2007, Susie added Mentor Coordinator to her duties. When this writer became a Mentor, it was Susie who matched me with my “Mentee,” with tenderness for the child and a scrupulous regard for confidentiality. Susie also built up the school’s Primary Intervention/Special Friends Program, helping children build social and emotional skills. Says Goss, “Children loved working and playing with Susie in a safe and friendly environment, and Susie’s involvement with both adults and youth has been integral to the school, and more recently, the preschool.”
Nick has made himself equally indispensable to the community, as San Juans representative for the Bureau of Land Management. National Monument Manager Marcia deChadenedes says, “No one in the entire 12,000-person BLM family has greater appeal or enthusiasm. He is so knowledgeable of both the resource and the people of the islands, and has such profound, energetic commitment to the best outcomes. The challenge is keeping up with him while staying in sync!” An educator at heart, Nick not only partners with most environmental organizations in the region, he constantly volunteers his time and energy with groups like the San Juan Experiential Education Outdoor Classroom, the American Hiking Society, and lighthouse keepers throughout the islands.
Sometimes Susie and Nick manage to join forces. Lopez Island Conservation Corps, whose mission is to create a lasting bond between youth and nature, reflects their shared callings. Susie is LICC board chair, Nick is the BLM liaison—and they get to attend meetings together. LICC director Amanda Wedow admires the way the Teagues “involve you in their plans to make the world a better place.” In 2006, Susie and Nick created their business, Whispers of Nature, which includes the beautiful community labyrinth. Tending the labyrinth (with help from several “Garden Fairies”) to provide a space of beauty and healing is, for the Teagues, an act of commitment to the earth and the community.
Healing is another shared passion. Susie remembers being a child in her grandma’s garden, “digging deep in the soil and connecting with the earth,” which sparked her interest in plants. With degrees in Psychology and Therapeutic Recreation, Susie currently uses her herbalist skills, along with Neurological Integration System and Reiki, in her Whispers of Nature healing practice. Nick’s childhood memory of a park ranger, talking with his family deep in the forest, helped guide him toward his degree in Outdoor Recreation and his career, but a profound respect for humanity is the real force behind his call to help people.
Susie and Nick touch individual Lopezians through their labyrinth and their work. But on the musical stage, they inspire whole audiences. Beginning with Chicken Biscuit in 2011, the Teagues now play in several bands, most notably the funky Super Wide Groove. Bandleader Bill Johnson says, “They are the soul of Super Wide Groove.”
Lopez is invited to celebrate the Teagues at a potluck dinner on Saturday, January 30 at five p.m. at the Community Center. Please bring a dish to share, and your own place settings. Gluten-free dishes and ingredient labels are encouraged. If you like, bring a lovely beach stone for the labyrinth. Dinner will be followed by music; with the Teagues, how could it not?
