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 Eighteen
Inner Work Meditation (Heart): The word fungus is defined by many as an ugly word. Just the sound of it makes most people a bit squeamish. However, when you explore how different types of fungi look you will see how beautiful they really are. Take some time today to meditate on an “ugly” word you use, think or hear from someone else often. Can you define this word in a more beautiful way? Is there a hidden beauty in this word you are missing? If not, is there another word you could use instead? There are many words than can mean the same thing but often we will use words with negative connotations instead of positive ones. Consider, for example, the difference between “stubborn” and “dedicated” or “pushy” and “passionate”. Focus on one word today and transform it into a positive one.
Nature Walk Idea (Head): Whenever I take a picture of some gorgeous fungi arranged so perfectly against a green background or beautiful old tree I feel like I am stealing a piece of art from Mother Nature. People will say, “what a beautiful photo that is”! But I am thinking, “I didn’t do that – Mother Nature did”. The picture of the fungi on this tree stump today is a perfect example of a photo like that. Your nature walk assignment today is to find a piece of art that already exists in Mother Nature. You don’t need to capture it with a photo, drawing or words – just notice it is there and take a few moment to admire it, as if you were at an art museum admiring a painting. For adults and older students take this a step farther and do a “critique” of the art as if it were a piece in an exhibit and you are an art critic. If you would like to delve into recording and evaluating in more detail see our tutorial, How to Create Main Lesson Books.
Photography Notes (Hands): Today’s assignment is to find some fungi, lichen or moss. A fungus is defined as any member of the group of organisms that includes yeasts, molds, and mushrooms. There are thousands of kinds of fungi, lichen and mosses. They are often confused, especially since in many cases common names for lichen include the word moss (as in the case of Reindeer moss). In the short walk you take each day there are probably hundreds. Take some time to find at least one of these and take a photo of it or create another artistic depiction of the fungi you find. This is a good time to review the lighting lessons that we had earlier in this series. Which kind of lighting works best for your photo? Does your fungi look better in direct sunlight, shade or on a cloudy day? What does rain do to your fungi?
Verse: Fungilicous
Copyright Kristie Burns
Fungi
Clingy, expansive
Growing, flourishing, glowing
Mold, mushrooms, Reindeer Moss
Spreading, dispersing, proliferating
Bright, enticing
Lichen
*The Diamante is a form similar to the Cinquain. The text forms the shape of a diamond. Line one is a noun or subject and is one word . Line two is two adjectives that describe line one. Line three is Three ‘ing words that describe line one. Line four is four nouns. The first two are connected with line one and the last two are connected with line seven. Line five is three ‘ing words that describe line seven. Line six is two adjectives that describe line seven. Line seven is a noun synonym for the subject.
*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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