#Earthschooling365: Day Fifty-Eight
Inner Work Meditation (Heart): Today I saw a great horned owl for the first time. It was an amazing moment! I’ve been walking this trail for many years and have never yet seen one. Usually they come out at night. This one was trying very hard to sleep in a dark corner of the tree during the day but the crows would not let him sleep. While I stood there in awe, so excited and delighted to see this unique vision of beauty and power – the crows screamed and dove at him (see photo of the crow and the owl at the bottom of this post) and did everything they could to get him to leave. This situation also happened to my daughter recently. Last week she got a new dance instructor and said to me, “Mom, this instructor thinks I am amazing. How can I act the same with my other art instructors and they are always trying to change me and get me to ‘toe the line’ but this instructor thinks my personality is perfect the way it is?”
And sure enough, the instructor called me later to share with me how she was intelligent, responsible, hard working, hard a great sense of humor and great energy. That sounds like my daughter. However, another performing arts teacher seems to often take issue with her odd sense of humor, boundless energy, creative assertiveness, and passion. She is one of the most responsible and dedicated people I know and yet she has been little recognized for that with a couple of her previous instructors. It seems they were often trying to change her into another personality type.
So who is right?
In the end it really depends on if you are the crow or the photographer. Perhaps her personality type was not as suited to another instructor’s management skills, needs or expectations of what the “ideal performer” should act like. She has often been told that she “talks too much”, “asks too many questions” or does other things ‘too much’. She is often labelled as ‘too much’.
Take some time today to think about how your point of view is empowering someone in your life. Realize how important you are to that person and don’t take it for granted. You are a blessing to that person. If you are able to recognize someone for who they are and accept, encourage and work with them this is a blessing. Not everyone will fit with everyone. At the times time, take some time today to think about someone you are not as encouraging with. Do you find yourself always telling someone to “be less (adjective)” or “stop (verb)ing”? Pick just one example and think about how you can take one of those traits and work with it in a positive way instead of trying to change it.*
*Not all issues will fit into this category. For example, if someone is always late, uses swear words constantly, is abusing you or someone else verbally or acting out with physical aggression these are habits that need to be worked on.
Nature Walk Idea (Head): We have talked before about using your ears on your nature walk. However, when we did this exercise before it was simply to listen and see what you could hear directly. For example, if you can hear a cardinal you could identify that it was a cardinal. We even took this a step farther and tried to guess what these sounds might mean. Today we are going to advance this listening power even farther. Today, on your walk you will listen for sounds that tell you something indirectly. For example, the only reason I found this owl was because I heard some very angry crows off the nature trail and knew that 90% of the time they are only that angry if there is an owl or another predator around. Another example would be the different sounds that hawks make. If I hear a hawk make a sound the direct message they are giving me is that they are around. However, an indirect message I could get would be a certain sound they make when they are protecting something. That might indirectly tell me there was a nest in the area. Another example I often use on my walk is the loud sound of people playing near the trail. I know that if I hear people making a lot of noise near the trail that I will probably not see a lot of wildlife on that section of the trail because they will all be hiding or have moved to a quieter area. So your assignment today is to use your ears to pick up as many indirect messages as you can on your nature walk today. As a little side note – it looks like this owl uses his ears a lot – doesn’t he?
Photography Notes (Hands): Today your assignment is to practice balancing elements in your photo. We already talked about the rule of thirds and placing your subject a little off center. However, when you do that it can leave a void in the scene which can make it feel empty. For example, in the photo of the owl and crow below I also have numerous other photos of just the owl. I wanted to show his position up in the tree (and not just get close up shots) but just him alone made the rest of the photo seem to empty and the owl too small. One framing “trick” is to balance the “weight” of the subject by including another object of lesser importance to fill the space. In this example, I waited for the crow to get into position and took a photo with both of them. If you can imagine this photo without one of them you will see how it is off balance. However, with both of them in the photo it is a balanced photo. Your assignment today is to practice that technique with any subject of your choice. You can use anything to balance anything else. It does not need to be birds. You can balance a large sign with a building, a bush with a tree, a rock with a bridge or any other combination you see.
Verse: Says the Crow to the Owl
Copyright Kristie Burns
Your voice is too loud
When you’re here it’s a crowd
Eyes large as an ocean
With de trop emotion
That determined expression
Your motives I question
Your wings are too long
So I’ll sing you a song
About what I desire
To what you aspire
Does not have a place
For this is my very own private space
*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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