South West Shield
Often during workshops or expeditions of two or more days, we will gather as a group to check in and see what people are learning, want to learn, enjoying, thankful for, or would like to change about the program. During this meeting everyone has a chance to speak what is on their mind. This helps me to cater the program more to the group’s interest.
If time permits, I always like to engage participants in personal reflection on the experience. I find often when I go out into the wilderness or take a course of any kind, I learn so much in such a short period of time. It is important to take time to reflect, sit, and often journal about the experience .Once I get home, there is so much going on, and so many distractions, that many of the lessons and memories can quickly become faded without proper reflection time.
I am big fan of journaling on the day’s lessons. I know many different journaling exercises that can be used to help encourage deeper insight into the day’s events and help to increase both our awareness skills and naturalist knowledge of our local ecology. I also like to encourage sketching of plants, trees, tracks, and animals. This often helps instill a picture in our head and give us a reference when we get home and want to look something up in a field guide. Journaling is never mandatory in my programs. If participants are not interested in journaling these times can always be spent in other ways as long as they do not distract those who wish for some quiet reflection time.
There is one piece of advice that was given to me that I will never forget. It has changed my life in so many positive ways. If I could pass it on to you, my gift to the world will be fulfilled. It was given to me by one of my mentors, a naturalist, tracker, and teacher I respect very much. He said something like this: “if there was only one thing I could pass on to you that would take your studies further than any course I teach, it would be finding a place in the natural world to sit and observe. Go to this place as same as often as you can. Go an hour a day if you can. The more often you go, the faster you will progress. This alone will take your tighten your connection to the natural world and improve your ability as a naturalist, tracker, and survivalist, further than any other course you do.”
Does this sound crazy?
I thought so at first. Now I feel it is some of the best advice I have ever been given.
