Ahrend Walters was born on March 29, 1985 and He has gone through many changesAhrend Walters biography was written to show others how the many changes he has gone through have led him to discover his talents and purpose. This purpose drives him to create.
Ahrend’s early memories of his mother include how much he enjoyed riding in the car with her and singing. He was just three when his mother graduated from High School, but he remembers wearing the graduation cap. His mother continued her education and achieved a Bachelor of Science degree at Mississippi State University. She married Lee Walters, a man she had dated since Ahrend was two years old. They adopted Ahrend back and moved to Columbus, Mississippi after he finished second grade. Ahrend’s mother was very mature for her age. “When she was 14 she seemed twenty. When she was twenty she seemed almost thirty” recalls Ahrend. Ahrend is still close to his mother. She is tender and affectionate but also very emotional. She has had a depressive past. This was difficult for Ahrend. “I remember there was a lot of my childhood when my mother stayed depressed. Growing up in an atmosphere with a depressive mother is difficult. I had to make sure I didn’t upset my mom in any way.” Although Ahrend has maintained a close relationship with his mother he recognizes how they are different. “My mother doesn’t like to listen to slow music. Me, I love slow music. I just grasp the harmony out of it – it’s great. That’s where we’ve always had conflict. She would tell me that the slow music bothered her and that she can’t handle it.”
Another way they are different is how they deal with change. For Ahrend change is a constant in his life that he embraces. He likes change and finds that it challenges him and his creativity. His mother does not like change because she worries thatthings are not going to come together or ends are not going to be met. Therefore, being considerate and tolerant is something he’s very conscious of. “I try to live my life so as not to concern her. I just go and do, but try not to worry her. My life of change could drive her into a bottomed out depression because she would worry about it.” The idea of embracing change is unusual for most people. We can be fearful of what we don’t understand. When we are faced with the uncertainty of life and what change can mean we tend to focus on the negative. This is not the directive from God. Throughout the Bible messengers of God, be they angels or Jesus Christ, tell us to fear not. Nevertheless, change is inevitable and for an artist change can mean stretching and growing. You have to get a little uncomfortable when you get out of your comfort zone. Change can bring this discomfort, but it can also lead to growth and discovery.
He would invite some of his school friends over to stay the night. Then he would get up early in the morning and bring his friends along to tour his nature walk. Ahrend always wanted his friends to tag along so he could share the beauty, peace andharmony that he finds within nature. “I love mornings; I’m more of a morning person. I like night, but I don’t prefer to stay up until midnight as others enjoy doing. I like to get up early during the mornings right before the daylight appears. I find pleasure in the mornings while it is still dark and then the sunrise slowly illuminates the sky.” His young friends would go along with it and helped build the nature walk, but he found they didn’t acquire the same enjoyment from it as he did. Still, he continually strived to inspire other people and hoped they would discover the same creative fire.
“At first I had a rabbit, a couple of chickens and a few other animals that I kept to the side and fed. I was also incorporating plants and water gardens. I just loved the animals.”
The creation of the animal farm was not just a creative outlet. It also became a refuge of peace and harmony in his world. As he puts it, “I had the animal farm and I combined the animals together all in harmony in one pen because I sought for them all to live together in pure peace. It took time for me to get the different animals used to each other. I would put pens side by side for such a long period of time and once I let the animals mix they got along because they had been around each other for an extended period of time.”
The biography of Ahrend Walters is included in his latest book of poetry, The Intrigue of an Imperfect Beauty, available from Trafford Books. Return to the home page
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He credits the Lord for instilling this love of animals in him and his goal was to incorporate the animals into his nature walk. He hoped people would go through it and appreciate the menagerie of animals in the natural setting. It was hard work and Ahrend did most of the labor. He would encourage his friends to help, but that was difficult because they usually wanted to play baseball or other sports. But he would keep seeking out others with whom he could share his love of nature and animals. “I had to find friends who weren’t so interested in athletics and would desire to do this. A lot of my friends were athletic, but I never was.”
