#Earthschooling365: Day Forty-Six
Inner Work Meditation (Heart): Today as I was taking my walk I saw a group of yearlings (the fawns from last year). Some of them glanced at me and some ignored me. The mother was confident but kept an eye on me to make sure I didn’t get any closer. However, one of the fawns was a little more concerned than the others. She stopped and looked at me very closely trying to decide if I was something to be feared or not. It appeared she was trying to decide if she should move away or stay where she was. Then suddenly she sneezed. The noise startled her completely and she ran off. However, when she looked back she realized that all the other deer were still calmly grazing and so she sheepishly wandered back to the group. How many times do we do that to ourselves as well? We become so worried about something that we almost make it come true. This fawn was so worried about me that she easily imagined her sneeze was some horrible noise I had created. Have you ever worried about something so much you imagined it was worse than it was? Take some time this morning to plan your practice for today. Your practice for today will be to try to avoid focusing on worry and instead, focusing on what is happening in the now. Be alert to signs that you are “frightening yourself” and practice distinguishing between outside threats and the “sneezes” you create in your own mind.
Nature Walk Idea (Head): Sometimes animals make surprising noises. Today I heard a deer sneeze. I had never actually heard a deer sneeze before. I didn’t even know that their sneezes sounded almost exactly the same as a human sneeze. Another surprising sound I often hear is the trees creaking. On a windy day the branches will rub against each other and will creak like an old door. It is often hard to even imagine it is a tree making that sound! Today on your nature walk try to identify the strangest, most surprising or newest sound you can. What is it? Can you figure out where it is coming from? Why is it new and surprising to you? Did you learn anything from it?
We are half-way through April and it is time to plan for May lessons. Check our our May lessons for preschool, kindergarten, first or second grade.
Photography Notes (Hands): In today’s photo you can see how a smaller aperture helped me create a photo where the deer in front was in focus and the deer in back was blurry. This is what we practiced yesterday. Today we will practice the opposite. Today, using the aperture priority on your camera again, use only a higher aperture to take your photos. A higher aperture would be f16 or f22. Then, after you take your pictures come home and look at them. What observation can you make about these higher f-stops? What did it do to your photos? You will be able to observe the differences between yesterday and today more effectively if you take some of the same photos today that you did yesterday. Another option is to take each photo today first with a lower f-stop and then with a higher f-stop.
What do you notice about the higher f-stop? One thing you should notice is that more of your photo is in focus and there is not much of a blur effect (as in the photo above). Was this the effect you wanted for your photos? How did this work well for some photos but not as well for others?
Verse: Deer Sneezes (Double-Dactyl)
Copyright Kristie Burns
Achoodle Kaboodle**
Babyface spotted-fawn
Startled by gesuntheit
Hurdled a log
Stood on the hillside and
Sheepishfully**
Slipped on a slug and
Fell into a bog
**Yes, these are meant to be nonsense words
*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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What is #Earthschooling365?
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!
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