Out of the Fog

"I write and write and write and find joy in it. A connection to myself. To others. A place of strength not known. Where I let fear go and press forward. Embracing those things important to me while looking for and supporting those things important to the rest of those I care about. This is where I am- giving to others and giving to myself. Slowly, hesitantly, walking down my path but seeing the light shine brighter as I go. Being only what I can be- doing what I need. I find the connection with others and love for others and they me coaxing me forward- embracing me on my journey toward home. The sun is rising as I set out. Come with me and enjoy what is in store."

I wrote the above last night during a workshop on Jungian archetypes. Amazed at how apt it was for where I currently am in my life. Perched between being a full-time mother and the haze that can sometimes accompany that place and the clarity that comes from finding one's life work.

Unfolding, Opening Yourself to the Journey

The two pictures in my blog post today were taken about a week apart. A week during which time I spun my wheels and rushed about, trying to force things in my life that couldn't and shouldn't be forced, ending up dissatisfied at the lack of results. Meanwhile, if you look closely at the buds on the branches in the two pictures in this post, you will see that nature has been quite productive during this past week. Slowly letting things unfold and open up, a dance of life playing out just outside my back door.
This dancing of nature acts as a heartbeat of sorts, keeping time for us and operating according to a rhythm that our bodies naturally pick up as winter moves to spring. As the the browns and grays of winter fade, and the green of spring unfolds we find ourselves shedding our warm winter coats and opting for lighter weight clothing without giving it much thought. Physically, we appear to be in tune with nature, our bodies walking in step with it.

Our minds are a different story. We (or at least I) try and obtain things for myself before the world is ready to relinquish them to me. I may think I am ready for a new phase in my life but roadblocks stand in my way. There are lessons I must learn first and I must journey and solve the many puzzles of my life, some frustrating and others rewarding. This preparation is an unfolding of the bud of my soul. An opening up, of allowing things in my life to happen as they should.

I need to pay better attention to the needs of my soul and less to the cry of my mind. Let the ancient wisdom of my inner world guide me through meditation and dream work . Let the spring buds on the trees outside my window serve as a visual reminder to slow down and be present and that life will unfold for me, allowing me to find my place in the world.

A Week of Natural Learning.

What does Natural Learning look like? How is it different for young people than a week spent at school? The biggest difference is that there are no divisions between time spent learning and time spent having fun, no jumping for joy at the end of the school day on a Friday with dreams of uninterrupted fun all weekend. No dread on Sunday night as homework for the week ahead is rushed through and completed. Instead, life unfolds and learning unfolds. I am sure you have heard of the quote "live, laugh, love". All things we willingly pursue in life which enhance our being in this world. Well, as a Natural Learner, you would insert the word "learn" into that quote as well, and go after learning with the same enthusiasm as loving or living. It would simply be a part of you, an extension of yourself. Not something a teacher would give to you, but something you would give to yourself. "Live, laugh, love, learn".

In my post yesterday, I talked of how my son pursued his recent interest in physics by talking to a retired physics professor who told him about an online video class in physics at MIT. I then went on to talk of how my son is learning by leaps and bounds in his pursuit of knowledge in a Natural Learning environment. Maybe talking like that left you with the impression that my son is socially isolated from his peers and that he spends his days alone. That isn't the case at all so let me write a bit about how my son spends his week so that you can come to see how Natural Learning works and if it is something you would like to offer a young person in your life.

My son starts every Tuesday through Thursday morning rising at 7am then coming downstairs to spend time having a breakfast of pancakes or eggs, playing with the dog, watching the Today show, showering and talking to me until 9am during which time we leave the house for his educational center. Ryan then spends the next 5-7 hours being exposed to a myriad of activities in a free and experiential way with a close knit group of 2o of his peers. Just this week alone, this group of young people began preparations for a garden, did fund raising and planning for an end of the year trip they will be taking, gave presentations to one another on research projects of their choosing, and other such activities. Tuesdays are filled with math and science topics, Thursdays with language arts related activities and Wednesdays are free choice days where the young people choose between three offerings every 6 weeks.

Friday through Monday Ryan finds himself still up early each morning and is free to use his time to further explore things he has been exposed to while at his educational center or to pursue interests he discovers on his own. Ryan likes to use this time to read books of his choosing, do research on the internet, tackle algebra, do video game design, go rock climbing, take hikes, play with the dog, help out at his educational center as they prepare for a weekend event or talk to me etc...He is also just as likely to plan time with friends to go into the city by train, attend a local event, hang out at someone's house, or have them over here. Time spent at church with his peers and also community events at his educational center rounds out his week.

Because Ryan is learning in a natural way, he finds the pursuit of knowledge fun and thus is constantly going after what interests him. There never is a line between work and play, it all just blends. There never is any downtime either and I find Ryan constantly wanting for more. Asking me if we can do math one day or help him with a research paper the next. He is hungry for it all and seems to have a thirst that I can't seem to quench no matter how many resources I throw at him. It is exciting to see and I constantly wonder where all of this will someday take him. A far cry from a year ago when he was ensconced in a public school classroom hating how learning was being forced upon him. The freedom to choose is allowing for him to burst forth rather than be held back in his learning. Making the quote "live, laugh, love, learn" his own.

Total Freedom in Learning= Exponential Growth in Knowledge

I attended a talk by Daniel Pink, the author of "A Whole New Mind" this evening at a school near my home. The biggest take away from his talk for me was when he mentioned how artists that are allowed to create paintings without any constructs turn out a higher quality of work than those creating art for a specific purpose or for someone else. Daniel's example made me think of our schools and that if we could apply the same principle shown above regarding artists to our students, by essentially allowing for more freedom in our schools, then maybe we would turn out better students. Students filled with passion and creativity and ready to move toward solving some of the problems facing the world.

Daniel talked tonight about how the policy makers in education need to get out of the way and allow teachers to run the schools, but I don't think that is the answer either. I believe teachers would feel the need to teach, to fill students with curriculums of their choosing when actually the reverse is needed. Students should be given the opportunity to fill themselves with knowledge based on their own self directed interests. I would like to see a complete switch take place in education where teachers provide the answers if and when students come looking for them. It would be a teacher's job then to create the desire and passion to learn and subsequently guide their student's interests.

An example of this sort of educational model can be found in the homeschooling arena where many children and teens are given freedom to pursue their interests, some with a higher degree of freedom than others. It has been my experience as a homeschooler, that the more freedom I offer my son Ryan, the more passionate and creative he becomes. In fact, now at age 14, after learning in a free environment for almost 5 years, I am finding the number of interests my son is pursuing with enthusiasm to be exploding. It seems almost daily, Ryan comes to me with a new idea of something we wants to learn or study further.

Just last week he told me he wants to learn more about astronomy, physics, JFK, and the Cold War, many of these interests sparked by exposure to these topics at the alternative educational center he attends. I told Ryan that he would have to go it alone in the physics field because I had flunked physics in high school. I explained I would be more than happy to provide resources in which to pursue physics but I wouldn't be able to "teach" it to him. I also went on to say that many colleges expect their students to know how to pursue knowledge and that many recent high school graduates come out of school lacking in that skill, having been told for years what to learn and how to learn it.

Imagine my surprise then when we were at the climbing gym on Sunday and met a retired University of Pennsylvania physics professor who told Ryan about how he could take a Intro to Physics class online with MIT through a program called Open Course Ware. He wouldn't get credit for the course, but would get fantastic exposure. Ryan, without my knowledge, went onto the site one morning when I was out and watched the first video of the class, taking notes and excitedly telling me what he had learned when I returned home.

This same sort of example happens over and over at my house and the incidence of this happening is growing exponentially, so much in fact, that much of Ryan's time is spent in the pursuit of knowledge, with little regard to time of day or day of the week. I am just as apt to find Ryan researching something on a Sunday as on a so called "school day". Because Ryan's learning is self-motivated or directed, it is a better quality of learning. Learning he is passionate about and will remember far longer than the typical student who forgets what his teacher taught him after being tested on the material.

So my idea of educational reform would be to throw out most of what we currently do in schools and start anew. Offer freedom in learning to students and have multiple age classrooms so young people can learn from one another. Have teachers become facilitators and guides who stoke the passions of students by introducing a variety of topics to young people in an experiential hands on way. But most of all, give students the time to discover what most interests them and allow them to pursue it. Like the artists stroking a paintbrush against the canvas, creating what they see in their minds eye.

Below is a link to an excellent article written by Daniel Pink regarding his thoughts on education in this country which I discovered after I wrote my above post. We have very similar thoughts on how education needs to change in this country but he goes into more depth and supports his statements with many examples.

Schools Out, Get Ready for the New Age of Individualized Education by Daniel Pink.

Nature Fools on April Fool's...

Heavy, big snowflakes are drifting down from the sky outside my window. Cloaking the ground all around on this, the first day of April. Typically a day to fool an unsuspecting person, but on this day, there is no joke, winter has returned!

Why is it that the first snowfall of the season brings on joy and the last snowfall is something to be endured? The first snowfall is a sign of many dark days and cold weather ahead and really should be more feared than the last snowfall of the year. One which can be enjoyed for its sheer beauty with the promise of warmer days just around the corner.

With these thoughts in mind, I am going to embrace the flakes of winter, get out the sled one last time, and fly down the hill behind my house.

Finding Community

Water is a strong unifying force in a woodland, something that ties the community of life together. Everything that resides in this wild space needs water to survive. The animals that make their homes there, the towering trees, or the herbaceous plants which will soon spring from the ground. This ribbon of life then creates the fabric for which all in the forest partake.

In much the same way water weaves a life sustaining fabric in a woodlot, we humans, through our relationships with one another, weave a cloth that sustains and nourishes us and makes us feel not only part of the system, but also loved. This woven sense of belonging in our communities becomes essentially the common thread we all need to survive and thrive.

Just as animals in the forest search out water for which to drink, we humans search out communities in order to nourish our souls. Church groups, clubs formed around common interests, support groups, internet social media- they all play a part in helping to connect us to one another. Some of these groups provide all of the sustenance we need, others less so.

Over the years I have participated in many communities, yet have only found a few that really make me feel that all important sense of belonging. A connectedness that almost makes one feel they want to cry when surrounded by it. To see the beauty of many people coming together, caring for one another, drawing close, tightening the weave.

Having recently found a community that brings me great joy, I have wondered what sets this community apart? What ingredients does it have that others have not had? In my search for an answer, I stumbled across this quote by Wendell Berry which I think answers my question quite well:

"A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each other's lives. It is the knowledge that people have of each other, their concern for each other, their trust in each other, the freedom with which they come and go among themselves."

~Wendell Berry

As I sat in the barn last Saturday night at the educational center where my son spends his week, I felt a deep sense of community and belonging. Though just a newcomer there myself, most in the room had been together since their children were born. With the music playing and many dancing, others gathered at tables playing games or talking, shared food from the potluck filling us, I felt I had found home. Both lucky and grateful to have found this special place. Bounded by a desire to educate young people in freedom and a desire to trust and care for one another along the way, I saw this place for what it was- a deeply committed community. A place where the fabric of the community would be best described as loosely woven. Strong and supportive as needed, yet flexible enough to allow for each to be their own individual.

This fabric, cast from many threads, creates one beautiful garment which sustains all in much the same way a forest is sustained by the water that runs through it. We as a community through this coming together, find ourselves drinking from the same stream so to speak, day after day as well.

Look to Collaboration

All of nature is a giant integrated community that is based on a cooperation between species, an interdependent web of existence that allows for the natural world as a whole to march forward into the future. Just as a group of trees provide support to the community of which they are a part- by providing air to breathe, homes for animals, or sustenance to the soil from the leaves it sheds- we humans could use the example nature sets forth through the use of collaboration to solve many of the problems that plague us.

Under our current model of relating to one another, which is based on competition, we end up with a fractured network- rich and poor, well-fed and hungry, healthy and diseased - a community out of sync with the ways of nature and essentially doomed to continue on in the natural world. I will admit, there is competition in nature, but the broad based way nature operates is for the good of the whole system through collaboration. We humans on the other hand, are currently operating in a way that provides well for a few and neglects the rest, not giving much thought to how we are plundering the earth.

One way out of this mess is to start young and change our ways by switching to a new way of educating our children by using a collaborative method of teaching rather than a competitive one. To operate this way, education would get rid of the grading system and allow young people to explore learning based on their interests not those deemed important by the school system. Young people pursuing what truly interests them would make for more passionate and creative learners, paving the way for new ways of solving the world's problems. Young people would in turn learn how to support one another and each other's ideas, coming together to determine solutions for the problems they encounter, finding the power in using many minds over just one.

Already, this collaborative method of teaching our children has started in a few alternative educational settings, slowly beginning to turn the tide. It can be found mainly in educational centers with a strong sense of support toward the goals of collaboration, both in how they teach their young people and how they relate to one another in the community as a whole.

Another likely place to look for the seeds of collaboration would be in the homeschooling arena but they too find themselves plagued with many competitive factors as they fight with one another over methodology and who participates in the best form of homeschooling. There are the Christian vs. non-Christian camps and the "school-at-home" vs. unschooling camps, all acting much like their traditional school counterparts, steeped in fierce competition between one another. There is potential in individual homeschooling support groups to move toward collaboration if a group were to commit to it and formed a mission statement to that effect.

Unfortunately, starting young and changing the way we teach our young people will be hard. So many buy into our current way of education because they themselves have sat in a school desk and been taught to listen to authority and not question how we currently do things. But there are cracks in the veneer as our children slowly rebel and require a different way of learning. Listen to your children. Hear them say they hate school and don't want to go. They are saying that for a reason. It is miserable to be forced to learn things which you have no interest in and be taught things you won't remember. Set them free and you will be rewarded with a completely different child. One who smiles and loves life and laughs. One who may change the world for the better.

This natural form of learning, based in freedom and collaboration, is the answer I feel to moving away from what keeps us humans stymied in the current mire of world destruction we find ourselves in. We are no longer of nature, having stepped out of that giant integrated community long ago. We need to find our way back to the web of existence of which we are all a part and find our rightful place in the natural order of things.

Rainy Day Ramble

With my older son Jimmy home from Indianapolis for a visit, we didn't let today's rain force us to squander an opportunity to get outside and hike, as we donned our rain gear and set out. Due to the weather, the trails at our local arboretum were empty, giving us an opportunity to enjoy the quiet of the woods alone.
For a good part of our journey, the trail followed a creek which soon became more rocky as the topography changed and the creek found itself tumbling over rocks and boulders, forming small waterfalls as it cascaded downward.
Coaxed onto the rocks, my sons slowly made their way along the creek bed, hopping from one rock to another until they found themselves downstream and atop a log which crossed over the creek.
Rocks along creek beds have always been an attraction for my boys from the time they were little. The challenge to hop from one rock to another without getting wet called them into waterways when they were 3 and still now at 23, in the case of my older son. Some things never change.I myself, moved onto the rocks and loved the feeling of having the water rush around me as I stood safely atop a large rock. I was awed at the beauty of the water, the woods. The time spent with my two boys in such a magical place.

Nature's Plan

The woodland path beckons to me,

calling me forward

to partake in the yet unexplored.

There will be rocks to scale

and deep ravines to traverse.

Hilltops with beautiful views,

and muck filled bogs to slow me.

Sun in my eyes, rain upon my feet.

As I travel along,

I want to rearrange the wilds.

Make the trees stand straighter,

and not have my way cluttered

with last years fallen leaves.

Don't bite me bugs,

or make me itch poison ivy.

Hawk, serve as my compass.

After awhile I develop a truce with the woods,

and find my place in its midst.

I hear the chickadee's calls.

See the red fox walk quietly by.

Feel the wind rustle the leaves of the beech,

taste the rain as it falls.

Slowly, I learn to bend to where the path is taking me,

embracing the journey and its gifts.

~Darcy

It's almost Spring and the Trash is Blooming...

The last of the snowbanks have melted alongside the road in front of my house, paving the way for yellow daffodils to push their way upward and bloom. Unfortunately, the melting snow has also revealed all of the unsightly trash that has been tossed out car windows along the rural road I live on all winter long.

This morning I picked up two full black trash bags of trash on both sides of the road in front of my house and extending down the hill to my neighbor's. What I found didn't surprise me...pop cans and bottles, take out food containers, beer cans and empty jugs of whiskey and gin. The cardboard that at one time housed various products, cigarette cartoons, and plastic cups.

I did find one surprise- a pair of underwear and down the road a bit, a torn open prophylactic package- more than likely tossed from the same car. I figured the car was probably traveling south, given the location of the underwear, which would have come off before the prophylactic went on.

After I weeded the roadsides of man's contribution, I could once again enjoy the beauty of the drive through the woodlands near my home. No longer distracted by the refuse of those who think nature is something to be trashed.