#Earthschooling365: Day Eighty-Seven
Inner Work Meditation (Heart): Today we will explore another one of our twelve senses – the sense of balance. When we talk about balance we are talking about harmony in the body and homeostasis in the body systems. We are not talking about how far you can get across a tight-rope. When we plan our schedule for the day we plan to balance our “breathing in” and “breathing out” activities as well as our “head, heart & hand” activities. Balance is what keeps us feeling “in sync” with the world and people around us. In fact, finding balance on two feet is something that sets humans apart from many other mammals and is a big step in a child’s life. Everyone remembers that day their child took their ‘first step’. Today’s inner work is to set a balance goal for yourself today. Will you focus on balancing “breathing out” and “breathing in” or will you focus on physical balance? Will you focus on balancing time alone with spending time with others? Will you balance your cup of coffee with a relaxing cup of chamomile tea?
Nature Walk Idea (Head): Today I saw a mother doe resting in the meadow (see below). She was quite large. She may even have twins soon! It is easy to see when a mammal is ready to have a baby – they get quite large in the belly. But what about insects and birds? How can you tell they are getting ready for babies? Today’s nature walk assignment is to look for signs that mammals, insects and/or birds are getting ready for babies. Birds will often gather extra nesting materials, monarchs will perch on one flower or plant (usually milkweed) for an extended period of time so they can deposit their eggs and bees will become quite busy getting the hive ready. What signs can you see today?
Photography Notes (Hands): Today we will work with shadows again, but in a different way. Remember when we worked with shadows before and focused on how they created patterns on the paths or created a beautiful image on their own? Today’s assignment is a bit different. Today you will focus on using shadows to create a different mood in your lighting. In the photo of the doe above I used the shadows of the trees and bushes around the doe to give her appearance more mystery. Instead of staring at me clearly from the grass (like the doe below) the photo with the shadows evokes the feeling that she is hiding from me. In the photo above one can almost feel they are entering a secret world just a bit. In the photo below one is clearly part of the experience and there is nothing secret or mysterious about it. How can you use shadows to create a mood in one of your photos today? To inspire you think about one of the most popular “mood photos” we all like to create around the camp-fire. Have you ever taken your flashlight and shined it under your chin to create a haunted mood? Think about the direction the shadows are hitting your subject today, what they are illuminating and what they are hiding.
Verse: Preparations
Copyright Kristie Burns
Mama doe rests her large belly
Worker bees make sweet jelly
Skunks make their den smelly
Spider creates a soft cot
Robin builds a stick pot
To welcome their tiny new tot
**A Tercet is a poetic unit of three lines, rhymed or unrhymed. It could be AAA BBB or simply AAA.
*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!
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!)
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Waldorf homeschool curriculum
Waldorf inner work
Free photography lesson
Free Waldorf verse
Waldorf nature table
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