#Earthschooling365: Day Seventy-Nine
Inner Work Meditation (Heart): Can you see the owl in the photo to the below? Me too! Until I used a telephoto lens I could not tell that this was a tree branch and not an owl. I was so focused on finding more owls after yesterday’s lucky sighting that I had a very hard time telling this was not an owl. My brain just didn’t want to believe it. We often do that with people as well. We are so used to experiencing something or so focused on finding something that we miss what is really happening. Take time today to meditate on how you can take a step back (or closer) to someone today and really see what is happening with them. You may be expecting them to be disruptive because “that’s what they usually do” but they may simply need some help today. Or, you may expect them to be “considerate and kind” because that is how you know them, but they may really be spreading rumors about someone under the guise of being “helpful”. Sometimes things and people are not what we think they are initially. How can you work on being objective in your every day experiences with people and get to know them every day instead of assuming you know who they are already?
Nature Walk Idea (Head): Today’s assignment for your nature walk is to do a “call and response” activity. In the owl video from yesterday you can hear a person hooting in the video. This encouraged the owl to hoot back. During the summer months I sometimes go up to Wisconsin and do wolf tracking for their DNR. Part of our work is to howl for wolves in the summer. The number of responses we receive from the babies helps them survey wolf numbers around the state. You can do the same thing with any animal. If you are looking to find a certain bird or animal you will need to look up that animal’s sound online and learn in. You can then go out on your walk and call for a particular animal. However, an easier task is to listen to the birds and animals that are already talking to you. Try to mimic their calls and talk back. What are the results?
Photography Notes (Hands): Today’s assignment is to take a photo of a branch, tree, flower or assortment of items in nature that are arranged to look like something else. Ideally you will find this item occurring naturally on your walk. However, you can take some time to create an image as well. This assignment will help you practice seeing more carefully. It will also help you practice seeing things in more creative ways.
Verse: Magical Forest
Copyright Kristie Burns
Today I saw…
An owl turn into a tree branch
A bird transform into a log
Red flowers take flight as cardinals
And a deer become a gray fog
You might think I walk with fairies
With gnomes running under my feet
But it’s just my eyes that play tricks
With the forest creatures I meet
*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!
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!
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.
Leave a Reply