“If you don’t want me, why am I here?” I asked.

The author (upper left) and Tony on FaceTime while Greg was on COVID lockdown in Peru.

The author (left) and Tony the day after a mushroom ceremony in Florida.

The author (left) and Tony getting married in their home in Virginia.

The author (right) and Tony at a mountain swim hole in the Shenandoah Valley.

A former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, Greg Wrenn is the author of “Mothership: A Memoir of Wonder and Crisis,” an evidence-based account about how ayahausca and coral reefs saved his life and woke up his ecological conscience. His work has appeared in The New Republic, Al Jazeera, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. As an associate English professor at James Madison University, he weaves climate change science into literary studies. He lives in the Shenandoah Valley with his husband and their growing family of trees. Find out more about him at gregwrenn.com or on Instagram @gregjwrenn.

This piece previously appeared on HuffPost and is being shared again as part of HuffPost Personal’s “Best Of” series.