Nature's Wisdom Summer 2005       Vol. 4 Issue 4 “All true wisdom is only to be learned far from   the dwellings of men, out in the great solitudes ...   To learn to see, to learn to hear ... go into the     wilderness alone." Igjugarjuk, Caribou Shaman  In This Issue   by Sarah Anne Edwards     I am working hard to complete my dissertation by the end of the Summer and here it is, right around the corner, soon passing us by. Thus I reached the conclusion that our Summer 2005 must be an abbreviated one, more in blog-style as several of you recommended last quarter. In this issue you will find:      Information about an Upcoming Ecospection workshop on learning to sense         dangers like other creature do      Personal Reflections on What's Real: Do Most of us Live in Hyper-Reality?      Putting Nature into Words      Building a Sustainable Community Begins      Upcoming Events at the Institute      Preview of the Fall 2005 Issue Photos are from the natural beauty of Norway by Revalyn Sach. EcoSpection Workshop: A Nature Workshop Aug. 20-21st, Taos, NM    In our Winter 2004 issue, we wrote a piece on Animal Wisdom: Our Wisdom describing how among the miles of desolation following the giant tsunami last year, not a single wild animal carcass was found. They sensed danger and sought higher ground. Some animals even even prodded and nudged humans to go along with them to the safety. We too have rich sensory abilities, but much of our sensory ability has faded from lack of use or been turned off to defend against urban noise. We can reclaim our senses, though, and this Full Circle Center workshop lets nature teach us how. I would love to go to this workshop and would be there if I wasn't committed to finishing my dissertation. If you decide to attend, please tell us about your experience and what you learned.         To find out more.      Personal Reflections:  Do Most of Us Live in  Hyper-Reality?    "Look around you," the lecturer on the tape    suggested. "Chances are there is nothing around   that is not created or put there by human beings.   Even that tree outside your window didn't grow   there by itself."    The group gathered here at the Institute looked at each other with puzzled glances. "I don't understand," one woman commented. "Other than the house we're meeting in, nothing around us is manmade."    In that moment, I realized that those of us who live here in our mountain community are literally living in a different reality from most people in the modern world today. Our world so very different that many of us in the room couldn't imagine what the lecturer on the tape was referring to.    Very little around us is manmade. Our homes and streets are dwarfed in this giant national forest, a blip on the landscape teaming with other beings whose lives go on more or less obvious to our presence. Towering pines, grassy meadows, and bubbling streams dominate, punctuated by the busy lives of Jays and Red Tail hawks and dozens other birds, squirrels, coyotes, sage brush, Indian Paint, cattails, and so much, much more.    I had to stop and wonder what it means to live almost entirely in a mostly natural world versus a mostly manmade world. Am I and my neighbors fundamentally different in some way from every one else these days? Have we changed? Do our environments share us as Churchill claimed? Am I now out of touch with what life is like for most people?    Maybe so. It's always interesting to me that when I ask a question of life, someone  or something always comes along with an answer, and so it has been in recent weeks when I happened first to discover research by UCLA neuroscientists that shows we do, in fact, mimic our surroundings. Not long after I also learned that in recent years others like French social theorist Jean Baudrillard have also asked such questions as these.    Baudrillard sees most of us living in what he calls the Hyperreal, a world where everything is mediated by images or reproductions of our own creation, a world where the hyperreal of technology is more real than the real. Where reality is composed of simulations, data, and images and even war is a media event.    To illustrate Baudrillard's point, philosophy professor Rick Roderick of National University describes a young woman who upon returning from her tour in the Gulf War was asked what the war was like. She said it hadn't really registered until she got back and watched the CNN footage of the war that her husband had taped while she was gone. Roderick went on to tell of his young daughter who preferred text messaging her best friend than to go across the street to talk to her in person. "Why don't you just go over to see her?" he asked. "This is more fun," she replied.    So are we different here? Have I changed? I realize that I have. I watch far less TV than when I lived in the city. Many of our friends don't even have television. Very little of my day is mediated. In taking an inventory of how I've changed I notice that I worry less. I'm less interested in things and more interested in people. I'm less interested in being in charge or directing life and more interested in living it. I no longer do very many things I don't want to do. I trust life more. And best of all, while I'm still as curious as ever, I'm no longer searching for answers for my life. I just find them when they appear. And, I'm more satisfied with myself just as I am.    Is this kind of reconnection with the primary reality why we feel so much better in when we're in nature? It's something to contemplate, or better yet, to experience. l Putting Nature into Words. Try This Nature Activity ·   Take an inventory of how you are feeling, physically and emotionally. ·   With a pad and pencil, go to an attractive natural area and respectfully ascertain that it is safe and comfortable both for you and the area that you be there to do this activity. ·   Without using words, let your full range of senses experience this place in nature fully for 5-10 minutes. ·   Now put your experience of nature into words. Let nature talk to you in this way, from sensory experience to words and thoughts. ·   Take another inventory of how you are feeling, physically and emotionally. Do you notice any changes? Examples of Nature's Voices from my experience: Of Broken Limbs The wind roared through the branches fierce as night. They tried to hold on. They really did. They tried with all their might. But then they had to let go, and so they did. ________ Twilight Time I am the twilight coming to quiet the day and slip into night. I sing the songs of evening that lull us into rest. I vibrate with stillness. ________ The Open Summer Window The night comes into my bedroom, wraps its coolness around my body. It's darkness swallows me, soothes and quiets me. _______ The Drive for Life There in its tiny eye I saw the drive for life. In the frantic beating of it's one still working wing. In the digging of its beak into the dirt, to eat, To eat anything to stay alive. The drive for life fading, but none the less passionate in this small young bird lying on its side outside my window. I heard its unspoken cry for life and could not turn away, held captive by its atavistic plea to live. The thudding beat of its heart, It's twig-like legs frozen and curled in terror, lying now in the palm of her hand, soothed by her voice, Letting her clear its mouth of mud, Opening it oh so wide for the water dropper. Yes. The drive for life that reaches beyond fear. I saw it too in the eyes of the shrunken man as he stumbled into the party that night. The eagerness of each wobbly, catastrophe-defying step belied his body. The passion in his voice and the vibrance in his eyes shouted his joy of being there among us. Again the unspoken atavistic plea I could not ignore as I reached for his gnarled hand and felt the drive for live coursing through his veins. ________ We'd love to read your nature experiences put to words and would be happy to share them with our readers, with you permission of course. E-mail us. Building a Sustainable Community We've Begun!       Last month we held our first meeting to explore creating a sustainable community here among our mountain communities. About a dozen people came. We identified three goals and many possible ideas for pursing them each:   1. Reduce our dependence on fossil fuel required to heat and cool our homes.      We discussed:       - Identifying experts who can help us assess what we could each do to         make our homes more energy efficient.       - Investigating energy saving methods for the community at large: bio         diesel, sun, wind.   2. Reduce our dependence on fossil fuel required for transportation.      We discussed:       -  Creating shopping pools to reduce the number of times we have to go          into the city.       - Developing a ride-sharing plan.       - Supporting the local bus service.       - Shopping locally whenever possible: using local merchants, coop with          local grocers.      - Surveying local gardens and fruit trees to explore possible community         harvesting.      - Investigating nearby growers, ranchers, etc. as possible sources of            produce, eggs, and meat.     3. Create more sustainable ways of living here.       We discussed:       - Creating a community Gift or Exchange Board.       - Safely composting.       - Developing personal greenhouses.       - Developing a community garden.       -Touring local homes that are already doing innovative sustainable living.       - Having an Earth Day Celebration in conjunction with the Sierra Club to         educate ourselves featuring such topics as:               Permaculture               Canning               Alternative energy speakers i.e. solar, wind, biodiesel etc.               Tours of local sustainable homes               Native plants for landscaping               Honda demo of hybrids               Social marketing programs.    We then developed a to-do list people and volunteered to carry out these tasks before our next meeting coming up August 14th:       1. Review the CC&R's re greenhouses, solar panels, composting, gardening.       2. Schedule another showing of The End of Suburbia for interested          parties who haven't seen it yet.       3. Share this report with the Sierra Club ExCom and discuss their joining          our Earth Day project and possibly showing Peak Oil at one of their          meetings.       4. Explore possible connections with the local strategic Planning          Committee.       5. Find out about where and how we could host the community boards we          discussed and explore possibilities for working with local grocers.    A week after this meeting someone volunteered to donate an acre of land for us to build a community garden, so we have begun indeed! More next quarter. Upcoming Events at the Institute Join Us if You're in the Area  (there is no fee for attendance)    Friday, August 5th, 7 PM -   Viewing & Discussion: An Evening with Arundhati Roy    Friday, August 12th, 7 PM -  Viewing & Discussion: The End of Suburbia    Sunday August 14th, 1 PM -  Building a Sustainable Mountain Community    Sunday August 21st, 10 AM - Philosophical Discussion: Hyperreality    Sunday Sept. 4th, 10 AM -    Viewing & Discussion: The Corporation            Preview of the Fall Issue: An inspiring story about building one's life on the Pay It Forward Principle. Also we'll share our experience at the Deep Democracy  workshop we attended last week at Well Spring. And more lessons from nature for addressing daily personal issues as well as community and political challenges involved in living more naturally. We always welcome your thoughts. Summer Blessings, Sarah                                                                                                                    Home  Continuing Education  Newsletter  Books  Contact Us