About Nature, Wonder and Earth Day
April 8, 2024 will put parts of North America into darkness during daylight hours, thanks to the wonders of a Solar Eclipse.
April 22, 2024 is the 54th anniversary of Earth Day, a chance to honour and reflect on the gifts that surround and sustain life on this planet.
April 1, 2024 – not fooling! I am I am heading out of town with our grandchildren, rubber boots and binoculars. We plan to go walking, sniffing, noting, and noticing how the snow is melting and the birds are singing along the shores of the Columbia River, a couple of hours west of home.
Spring reawakens and reminds me of the importance of paying attention to the sights and sounds and smells of yet another seasonal transition.
Exploring Nature with your child is largely a matter of becoming receptive to what lies all around you. It is learning again to use your eyes, ears, nostrils and finger-tips, opening up the disused channels of sensory impression. Rachel Carson
Two quotes penned by my namesake (no known relationship), and remarkably brave conservationist, Rachel Carson (1907 – 1964) have remained on my bulletin board for over thirty years.
When our children were young and I was harried and hurried; when I was the Environmental Education Services Co-ordinator at the Friends of Banff National Park; when I was hurrying hard to nurture Olympic dreams at home and in the offices of the Banff Canmore Community Foundation, these words kept me grounded, motivated and consistently realigning my perspectives with life’s essential matters.
“If I had the influence of the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask the her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life a an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantment of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength” Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder, author of Silent Spring
How about you? Who is your favourite Nature-writer? How about Mary Oliver? Or Wendell Berry? Or Stan Rowe? Annie Dillard? Joanna Macy?
Need some inspiration to reignite your sense of wonder and appreciation for life’s gifts? If you want to pause and rejuvenate your group’s sense of wonder and gratitude, invite me for a 45 minute kick-start to fertilize some new ideas this Spring.
With words and gratitude. Contact me today to talk about options, dates and times
