What might it mean to take an hour, or day, or week ... to celebrate the magic of the natural world, and reimagine why we do what we do or how we do it, within the context of our culture? What might a 'school' look like if took off each morning -- not to a concrete building surrounded by asphalt, but off into forest and field? How might we adventure with old knowledge and new threads, and play with the arts and sciences within the living and vibrant textbook of the earth? By way of the earth, forest, sea, garden, hearth, and other heartful gathering places, we might wander a fabric of experience that reveals the poetry and genius of our authentic human nature.
In the Greenwood, our mentoring adventures are open to all ages -- no artificial division and isolation by age or development allowed! We scout the intermingled landscape of nature and imagination. As a 'genius tribe' we come together with a few ideas, a story, or some songs, and then dive into discovery!
Grounding our experiences is the concept of the Natural Learning Cycle - a mentoring concept that draws on the rhythms of the natural world, and the cycles of the days and seasons to support the energetic flow and authentic unfolding of time together.
Wilderness Awareness School articulates this process in the article The Natural Learning Cycle by Warren Moon. Read about it, reflect, and allow your own ideas of shaping an outing based on natural rhythms and cycles to speak to you. Feel them, and sketch a map of your day, if you need it. Then let go and have fun!
- curiosity
- being like a child
go ahead and scramble on all fours through
the bushes, tromp barefoot through mud, create garments for yourself
from flowers and leaves, catch a frog, make fairy houses, paint your
face with mud ....
- engross yourself in each moment
experience every little thing as
something brand new
- assume you know nothing!
Open to awareness, the smell of things, the
feel of them on your skin, who you become when you move like a raccoon
or bound like a deer, listen to the varied calls of the birds -- how are
certain calls similar to each other?
The Fox appears in many shapes and forms -- or is completely invisible! When we speak of the fox we are using it as a metaphor for the element of surprise, mystery, mischief, and fun that is present in everything -- if only we let go of our serious, literal natures, and be as open and adventurous as the children around us.
Here are just a couple of adventures that we've hosted that have been of Greenwood Nature. Mostly, adventuring in the Greenwood -- whatever form that takes -- is about being open to the natural world, finding yourself in its story, and allowing story to emerge, and of couse, plenty of fun!
"This is a time for self-directed work or play. We'll head off into the forest
to spend at least an hour on our individual endeavors and then gather
at the end to share stories of our adventures. I'll be working on my
children's fantasy novel. How about you?"
Dragon Storyweaving Circles