#Earthschooling365: Day Fifty-Two
Inner Work Meditation (Heart): Whenever I see geese I always make sure I stay a few feet away from them. This is because Geese are very assertive animals. Assertive. Not aggressive. I so often hear people saying that geese are so aggressive but whenever they bite or chase people it is always because the person got too close to them, got to close to their children, tried to take some food from them or tried to touch them. These are all considered dangerous by a goose. We may like being touched or having people close to us but a goose does not. And the only way a goose has to tell us where its boundaries are is to honk, chase or bite. But this is basic goose communication and assertiveness and not aggression. Thankfully, as humans, we have more skills that simply chasing, honking or biting but unfortunately we still often label each other with negative labels rather than considering a more positive label for the behavior. Today, we had to fill out a form for a dance class for my daughter. One of the questions was, “Does your child exhibit argumentative behavior”. I marked, “no”. She is quite assertive, she stands up for herself and she lets me know when she needs some time alone but I simply consider those forms of communication normal and within her rights as a teenager. I have, however, heard them defined by others as “argumentative”. Take some time this morning to think about each person who is close to you in your life today – each student in your class, each family member and/or each co-worker or friend. You may need a piece of paper for this exercise. Make two columns on the paper (or in your head). Write down a negative label you have for each of them (pushy, whiny, aggressive, moody, etc…) in the first column. In the second column change that word into a positive or more accurately descriptive one (motivated, expressive, assertive, introspective, etc…).
Nature Walk Idea (Head): Today spend some time talking about or learning about some of the safety rules of interacting with nature. If you have any questions about animals in your area you can e-mail us at: CustomerService@TheBEarthInstitute.com or you can take one of our Wildlife Educator Courses to learn more about different individual animals. Some things we talked about today were: Always stay at least six feet away from ducks and geese, always stay at least 25 feet away from a tree that an eagle or hawk is nesting in, and if any wild animal approaches you, you can assume there is something wrong because this is not natural behavior. It is always a good idea to carry pepper spray if you live in an area that has ever seen bears, bobcats, coyotes or cougars. However, even in urban areas at least one person in the group should have pepper spray as ferrel cats and stray or loose dogs can actually pose a significant danger to children and adults alike. A lot of people assume they are safe in their neighborhood park or cup-de-sac. However, there are numerous cases of dog bites each year in these areas and there are over 70 million ferrel cats in the USA alone (More information about ferrel cat problem in America can be found at: National Geographic).
One of the wildlife educators I worked with before who had worked with cougars, bears and wolves often shared with groups that the only time he used his pepper spray was on a goose that was attacking a 2-year-old child. The child was in danger of losing her eye-sight or worse. Make sure you are aware of the difference between fear and safety, however. We wear seat belts in our cars to be safe but that doesn’t mean we sit in fear the entire time we are in a car. In the same way, we carry pepper spray and follow safety protocols in nature, but that does not mean we need to be fearful of it at all.
Photography Notes (Hands): Your assignment for today is to think about the relationship between ISO and aperture. We have learned over the past two weeks that both of these have an effect on the light that is registered on the “film/sensor” of your camera. Today we will take the first step in understanding and working with this relationship by taking some photos in low light. If it is a cloudy day or close to sunset or sunrise you are probably already working in low light. If you are not, then you can put yourself in a low-light situation for this assignment by taking photos among the bushes or trees, in the shade or indoors. Take a number of photos using the aperture priority button on your camera (or take note of what the auto-setting aperture is for each photo). At the same time, change the ISO of the camera every 3-5 pictures or so. What do you notice about the aperture when the ISO goes up? Try taking some photos at ISO100 to start with and then ISO200, 400 and 800. Answer: You should notice that the higher the ISO the less light you need to let in the camera via the aperture. This is because the higher ISO signifies a more sensitive film/sensor. So every time your ISO goes up your aperture will also be able to go up in number (meaning the diaphragm of the aperture has a smaller opening). The following is a summary chart for you…
Verse: The Once Was a Goose
Copyright Kristie Burns
A transportation goose from Margoshes
Had feet that were basically galoshes
He honked like a train
And flew like a plane
And always bathed at car washes
*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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