Wednesday June 5

Louv - The Gifts of Nature - Last Child in the Woods

Nature doesn't steal time, it amplifies it....

Nature is reflected in our capacity to wonder

Nature deficit order- there is an experience disconnect

Kids aren't allowed to experience failure or take risks

Heesoon Bai - Reanimating the Universe - Fields of Green

(this was beautifully written.  I felt rushed in reading it.  I know I will comeback to this piece and reread it when I have more time to fully absorb it)

fully being present with all senses

we need to reconnect to the emotion of the senses. 

we need to feel, not think

we need to listen to our bodies and be connected to them and to our surroundings

Focusing on the now, not what is coming next

As teachers how do we nurture and how do we teach our students how to nurture?

·      In this culture we don't often discuss our emotions or our emotional process.  How can we make the classroom space a safe place to do this?

·      When we are stressed, what is really going on?  How can we get back to our center?  Can we let go and move on?

How do we engage students in the present?

·      How can we get the students engaged with all 5 senses?  In Home Ec. classes this is easier to do than some of the other ones, but how can we get students to engage in this on more than just a superficial level?

·      Media entices students to live in the "what's next" instead of "being in the now"

Thoughts while sitting on a path in the middle of the prairie

What is that smell?

Don't try to figure it out, just smell it...

sweet but not perfumey.

The wind in the leaves is like a symphony.

Different tones and intensities.

The poplar sounds different than ..... the tree next to me.

I don't know what it is......

It has fungus on its bark. 

Parts of it are in a state of decay. 

There is another tree, a little ways off

it is a skeleton in a sea of blue and green.

The tickle of an ant plays across my skin. 

I have interrupted his path. 

Time has shifted almost in-perceptively.

What was shade is now full sun. 

The wind plays across my skin in cooling waves,

just like it plays in the grass.

Is the grass aware of the winds cooling effects?

The colour of light is like no where else in the world.

This colour temperature doesn't hurt my eyes. 

Why?

Is it because I am from here?

I am from here.

I am from everywhere.

We all are.

We are stardust.

The molecules in my body are interchangeable with the molecules that surround me. 

They are interchangeable with yours.

They are interchangeable with what was and with what will be.