The incredible beauty of the natural world has always captivated me. As a student I became interested in geology and realized that in addition to their aesthetic quality, rocks and fossils contained a complex and fascinating story about the history of our planet. John Wesley Powell wrote of the Grand Canyon region in 1870, "the thought grew to my mind that the canyons of this region would be a Book of Revelations in the rock leaved Bible of geology. The thought fructified and I determined to read the book." Unraveling the history of Earth and life requires learning to read the language of geology. This is a difficult but tremendously rewarding task. Learning and teaching geology has taken me to some of the most beautiful places on Earth and face to face with some of science's most fundamental questions. My career as a paleontologist has given me a great appreciation for the grandeur of nature, and it has allowed me to share this appreciation with our students.