This series takes you through an entire year of our nature walks and is part of our non-profit project #Earthschooling365 at www.Earthschooling.org. The photos and posts in this series are all copyrighted. Please do not share or re-print them. Instead, share the link to this blog with your friends.
Along the way I will be sharing our favorite photo of the day, an inner work meditation for the day, photography assignment/tip for the day, nature walk theme for the day and a short verse for circle time (children) or meditation (teens/adults). We invite you to “walk along with us” this year, take some time to use the inner work meditation, be inspired by the nature walk theme of the day and perhaps even start a photo series of your own. To join the community on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram please tag your photos #Earthschooling365. To receive these inspirations in your e-mail inbox daily please subscribe to our blog alerts HERE. Don’t worry about missing days – you can join us as many days as you want this year!
Every day we will post one day. We will leave up 2 weeks of nature walks at a time. At the end of two weeks each nature walk will be transferred to the Lifetime Member’s Only Blog and will be accessible only to Lifetime Earthschooling Members. If you want to own the entire series without enrolling a an Earthschooling Lifetime Package Member you can purchase the entire series for only $35.00 (for the entire year!)
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You can start your journey any day. You do not have to follow our schedule. However, we will leave up the first week of the project all year so you can follow the steps to get started.
#Earthschooling365: Day Fourteen
Inner Work Meditation (Heart): Today I spent a half hour watching two squirrels built their nest and I learned, among other things, that they work together to build these individual nests that I see in almost every tree during the winter months. My first thought was, “how do they figure out the division of labor? What if one squirrel contributes more to the building than another? What if one stores more nuts there than the other? Do they get equal access to the nest even if they didn’t contribute the same amount?” Then I realized what a “human” way of thinking that was. In nature animals often (but not always for anyone who wants to get scientific with this) just do what “needs to be done” and work to build something together. Their motivation is to get the job done, to do what needs to be done and to create something useful and beautiful. They don’t spend time thinking about who is doing the most work or getting the ‘best deal’ out of the effort. Spend ten minutes today thinking about one project you are working on with someone else and think about how you can be more like the squirrels in the way you are working. Try to release your expectations of the other person with this project and think about what you want the end result to be.
Nature Walk Idea (Head): When I was watching the squirrels today I learned some things – squirrel nests are built for more than one squirrel (I had always thought each nest for for an individual), they work together to build and finally, they don’t bring all those sticks and leaves up from the ground. One of them actually spent quite a lot of time ripping twigs and leaves off the tree he was in. During your nature walk today look for squirrel nests and/or other animal homes you might see. If you don’t see any obvious animal homes look for possibilities. Some good possibilities are holes in the ground or in trees or piles of sticks and brush. You can also look for footprints leading up to enclosed or secluded areas. Do you want to learn more about animal homes? See our Man & Animal Lesson Block.
Photography Notes (Hands): I took this photo today because it made me laugh. Knowing what I do about squirrels they could be playing, they could be fighting or they could be making baby squirrels. Whatever they are doing it made me laugh to watch them play. I had watched two other squirrels earlier working very hard but this group was more interested in playing (there were actually four in this group). Todays assignment for your photo (or other form of artistic expression) is to take a picture of something that makes you laugh. We often think of good photography in terms of gorgeous landscapes, abstract art or amazing moments. However, a good photograph can also capture humor, among other moods. In fact there are many ways to capture humor. It does not necessarily need to be the subject itself – it could be the way you take the photo.
Verse: Squirrely Whirly
Copyright Kristie Burns
Squirrely whirly
Mr. Acquire
Steadfast, scrambled
Up and down
Panic took over
Heebiejeebies
Scurried him, worried him
Bushy crown
*These poems have been created for many purposes – from early childhood circle time verses to inspirational or expressive. They vary from day to day so you may find the way you use them or enjoy them also varies. If you would like to set these poems to music consider our tutorial: Creating Your Ow Waldorf Verses or Finding Your Inner Voice.
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*The double dactyl consists of two quatrains, each with three double-dactyl lines followed by a shorter dactyl-spondee pair. The two spondees rhyme. Additionally, the first line must be a nonsense phrase, the second line a proper or place name, and one other line, usually the sixth, a single double-dactylic word that has never been used before in any other double dactyl. Of course, as with all poetry – you can modify these rules and add your own touch.
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