I touch the world anew
31. Week of November 1
Inner sun, inner light
Striving outward through my will
Awakening my senses’ might
As creative ground I till
Releasing forces, shining seeds
That ripen into human deeds.
My students and I will be spending the coming week at a farm. This will be my third visit to the farm with a class, and I am looking forward to a transformative week. For the children, this is usually their first time away from their parents for an extended period of time. The environment that we will be in - out in nature, with the animals, eating fresh food, engaging in meaningful work - gives us an opportunity to experience ourselves in a new way.
When we can step into a time devoted to connecting deeply with the natural world, we have an opportunity to reawaken our senses. Everything is different, so we don’t fall back into the habit of not noticing. The air smells different, the food tastes different, we’re feeling things we may have never felt before - the softness of chicken feathers, the wetness of a cow’s nose. The novelty wakes us up. Hard work wakes us up. Being with classmates in a new configuration - brushing teeth together, making meals together, cleaning and packing and taking a journey together - brings us into new levels of relationship, helps us awaken to a deeper understanding of others.
Many of my former students would reference their farm trip years later; the memories of their experience resonated in their biographies. This coming week we will be sowing seeds that will ripen and bear fruit in the future.
This week, even if you will not be at a farm, practice deeply engaging with your environment through all of your senses. What do you see, hear, smell, taste, touch? How are you experiencing warmth and cold? Balance and movement? Gravity and levity? How do you engage in partnership with the world? What are your relationships? These expereinces are the seeds of future actions, the framework of future choreography in the creative dance of life.
PS - That’s my youngest child in the photo on their 3rd grade farm trip, holding a chicken. They are now 18.