#Earthschooling365: Day Sixty-Eight
Inner Work Meditation (Heart): Today I managed to spot a Barred Owl among the branches of a tree trying to sleep. Owls most often will sleep during the day and hunt at night or during the early evening. People who like to stay up late are often called “night owls”. Although the name is cute, this distinction is actually important in getting to know yourself. Depending on your temperament, physiology and other factors you may be a “night owl” or an “early bird”. Or your favorite time of day may even be 2 or 3:00 in the afternoon. This “ideal time” for your body will change throughout your life but it is important to know what it is at all times. By learning to work within your body’s natural rhythms you can be happier, more productive and more balanced. Take some time today to think about what your “ideal time” is and what you can do to support that. Plan more complex projects for your “ideal time” and make sure that you drink plenty of water and eat revitalizing whole foods during your “low times” each day. “Low times” are also an ideal time to either take a nap or do some movement like a walk or tidying up. These activities will help keep your energy levels steady.
Nature Walk Idea (Head): Earlier this week I saw a Great Horned Owl and today I saw a Barred Owl on our nature walk. Did you know that as well as predicting weather owls have had quite a history in folklore? In Ancient Greece warriors felt that if an owl flew overhead it meant they would win their battle. However, Romans believed that if one heard an owl it meant they would die. Needless to say, this contradiction only would make sense if the Romans and Greeks were in battle against each other. In early America the Dakota Hidasta Indians also felt the owl was a protector of warriors. And the Native Northwest Coast Indians viewed them as spirits of loved ones that had just died. Today we sometimes use owls to predict the weather, but we no longer see them as omens. If an owl is screeching a lot at night it might mean that colder weather or a storm is coming. If it is already cold or stormy and you hear an owl it usually predicts a change in the weather. Do you ever hear owls at night near your home or on the nature trail where you walk? Last night I heard one and sure enough, this morning it rained and was much cooler weather!
Photography Notes (Hands): Today we will talk a bit about post processing. During this year we are not going to learn how to use Photoshop or talk in great detail about different photo editing apps (there are so many!) but I do want to at least mention once that post processing can be an important part of photography and is a great tool to have on hand to avoid disappointment at those photos you wish would have turned out better.
In the photo I took of the owl today I didn’t compensate for the back lighting enough and ended up with a darker owl. I was able to fix this by increasing the exposure on the computer once I had downloaded the photo. I prefer to minimize any manipulation of my photos so the most common tools I use are photo sharpening (for when there is just a slight blur to the image and you want it to be perfect), cropping, and exposure compensation. My favorite mobile tool is Enlight because it is easy to use and offers spot editing as well as whole photo editing. My favorite tool on the computer is Pixelmator for photo editing and Smart Deblur for photo fixing. Smart Deblur is an amazing program that uses complex algorithms and will fix most of those photos you look at and say “Darn! That would have been the perfect photo if it just wasn’t blurry!” It is highly superior to that little tab on other editing programs that says simply, “sharpen”. Today’s photo assignment is to find a photo editing program you enjoy and try it out on a few photos.
I am not paid to say that I like these programs. I heard about them from other people and after trying a lot of different programs these turned out to be my favorites. The programs I mentioned above are my favorites because they are not only good but they are easy and straightforward to use. At least 80% of the photo editing programs I’ve tried in the past may have also been good but they were so complicated to use it was not worth it for me.
Verse: Owl
Copyright Kristie Burns
There was a Barred Owl in a tree
Who stayed up all night with glee
He slept all day
While his prey did play
When he woke they all did flee
*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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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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