March 20 marks the Spring Equinox, the time when the hours of day and night are balanced. After the Equinox, the days will continue to lengthen, and the nights to shrink until June 21, the Summer Solstice. Certainly here in the Pacific Northwest, the lengthening days and receding rains call us to be outside - as well we should be! We human beings are creatures of the natural world. We have generations upon generations of imprinting with the rhythms and cycles of nature. The most basic rhythms of day and night, or even birth-life-death structure our body and are known by our cells.
The natural world is filled with information, messages, and experiences for us. We are biologically designed to soak in and respond to our ecology in far more depth and richness than most of us can even imagine. For the bulk of human history, our ancestors relied on this information - as a matter of survival if for no other reason! Much can be spoken of regarding this topic - about how immersion in the natural world feeds our bodies, minds, and spirits on all levels, not to mention our intelligence. But all I want to point out here is that the coming of spring and that time of 'balance' is a great opportunity for us to seek that balance with the natural world. With that in mind, I'd like to offer a few suggestions for deepening your experience of the green realm.
First off, study some ethnobotany with Erin Kenny. There's nothing like nibbling your way through the forest! The smells, taste, and feel of the forest becomes your own, as well as the sights and sounds. When my younger daughter was 8-months-old, I took a four-day workshop with Erin. As I carried Gwynne in the sling, I plucked salmonberry leaves, Western hemlock needles, red huckleberries, wild lettuce leaves, and sweet cicily for her to sample, or let her attempt to pick them herself. Suddenly a baby's instinct to put everything in her mouth made total sense to me. In the safety of a mother's arms, the baby would also intimately experience the green they moved through, learning the plants through all her senses and developing an intimate relationship with them from the start. How much we deprive our babies of their connection with their nature when we keep them on picnic blankets in the park or refuse to allow them to play in dirt, or even eat a little dirt! Erin is passionate about our native plants, and lives what she teaches. Visit her website, for more info about her offerings, or speak with her yourself at a Village event!
There's no substitute for "dirt time" when it comes to learning about nature. Nature herself is the best teacher! But some good resources are available for guiding you, if you want to open your senses to what's possible. On the internet two great *free* 7-day e-courses are available to help you do that. Both were created by John Gallagher, the co-creator of Wilderness Awareness School's Kamana Naturalist Training independent study course. The first is on Nature Skills (a great new website to browse anyway). Called "Nature Walk", this e-course is designed to get you outside walking in your neighborhood and really soaking in the world around you. The other e-course is called "Supermarket Herbalism" and is located on Learning Herbs. It's designed to plunge you into the wonderful world of herbs by focusing on plants and herbs you probably already have in your refrigerator.
On another note ....
Furthermore, I propose the formation of a guild. Called "Dragon Singers" members of this guild are 'song carriers'. Once a month or every moon-cycle (or some other time period of your choosing) you caretake a song, and teach it to whoever wants to learn it. In the next time period, you choose another song to teach. In the meantime, you learn songs carried by the other Dragon Singers .... No need to be formal about this -- we don't need to have meeting or sign up sheets. You don't need to write out the music or words. Anyone can do this for as long or as short as they like. Our agreement is that the songs are like friends, and so we treat them as such, look out for them, and tell their stories as we pass them on.
Okay--that's all for this month. Happy nibbling and humming!