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!)
Support Our 365 Day Project by making a $5.00 Donation
(That’s less than 42 cents a month)
Did you miss days or don’t want to worry about missing days? Would you like a keepsake book so you can use this program over and over even when we take each post offline after two weeks?
Buy all 365 Days for only $35.00
(That’s less than $3.00 a month)
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 Twenty-One
Inner Work Meditation (Heart): The Starling is one of my favorite birds because of its hidden beauty. When it is just sitting in the tree in the shade it looks like a plain black bird. When it is flying in the sky it looks like a spotted black bird. But if the sunlight catches it just right one’s eyes are overwhelmed at the beauty revealed. Every color of the rainbow shimmers on its feathers and appears magical. It is so enchanting it is hard to pull one’s eyes away once the light hits it just right. This is often how it often is with people as well. When we stay in the light of positive actions, feelings, words and surroundings we take on a brilliant glow. So do those around us. Take some time today to meditate on how you can surround yourself and others with light to bring out that glow in yourself or others. What brings light into your life? Your classroom? Your workplace? Your home? How can you bring more of that in?
For tips on how to create a positive and harmonious classroom you can see our presentation, Early Childhood Mini Teacher Training Seminar.
Nature Walk Idea (Head): After taking walks for a while it is hard not to notice that the animals have relationships between them. The starlings seem to see themselves as the royalty of the woods and when the descend upon a tree everyone else leaves – just as the Starling assumes they will. What relationships can you see on your walk today? Everything on your walk has a relationship. The trees have a relationship with the birds. The birds have relationships with each other and also with the food they eat. How many relationships can you see today?
Photography Notes (Hands): Today your assignment is to use a natural frame for your photo. Natural frames can make a photo more interesting and bring focus to your subject. In the photo of the starling today I used the natural frame of the branches to get a better photo. When I took the photo from another angle the branch was behind the bird and the photo looked messy. When I took the photo without the frame it was not as interesting. The frame added some interest to this photo. As you are on your walk today see what kinds of natural frames you can include in your photos. If you are drawing or painting use a frame for your subject today. If you are writing consider using a form of poetry that creates a picture of your poem. If you are writing experiment with writing in a spiral or other framing manner. To explore frames more deeply you can check out our tutorial, Block Crayons: Level Four: Borders.
Verse: The Starling Sees the Sparrow
Copyright Kristie Burns
Starling
Ebony, Rainbow
Shimmering, Screeching, Stalking
Prince, princess, jester, minion
Chirping, fleeing, cowering
Gray, unpretentious
Sparrow
*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.
Please send your friends to www.BEarthBlog.com so they can join in too!
*The Diamante is a form similar to the Cinquain. The text forms the shape of a diamond.. Line 1 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; 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. However, line seven does not need to be an exact synonym. It can be something a little farther from the subject like a pencil to a pen or a magazine to a book. For example, in a previous poem I used Fungi and Lichen which are often seen as related but are not. As with all forms of poetry you can bend the rules to suit your expressive needs.
Leave a Reply