 . Web Site Navigation Project
NatureConnect: Introduction Education Information Validation Contacts  |
|
|
|
'
|
Project NatureConnect |
The Value and Outcomes of Nature-Connected Experiences.
Return to first page of this series
Yvonne S. wrote:
1. A few months after my divorce in 1988 I was back at the 60 acre farm we had shared, dropping off the kids for the weekend. Our property in down in a hollow a few miles from the Illinois River in west central Illinois, rolling, heavily wooded with only 11 acres of aerable land running alongside the creek that bisected our property. I loved that place with all my heart and I still cry over the loss of it. At that time, I was allowed to freely interact whenever I brought the kids for a stay at their dad,s. This early October evening boasted a full moon, soft wind and still warm air. I was thrilled to have time to take a walk before I needed to head back to my apartment in the college town where I lived. I was wearing a light sweatshirt, sneakers and had no flashlight or matches as I headed up the wooded knoll behind our farmhouse. I knew that property like the back of my hand, having covered every square inch of it a million times in the 8 years I lived there with my husband.
This night as I walked I found familiar trees, raspberry canes and the hollowed out spot where I had buried a female coyote a few years back after hunters left her for dead just inside our property line. We never hunted and never lost a single animal to coyotes; nor has my ex to this day. After sometime, the wind grew colder the clouds were taking away my moonlight and I needed to head home. I started for the edge of the hillside looking for the barbwire fence that would signal the edge of the hill before our house. I couldn't find it. I returned to the tree got oriented and started again. There were few sounds, except for the wind and leaves rustling. Scurrying sounds every once in awhile. Sounds I knew. But I was kept failing to find the path down or to see the lights of our house. I got scared and knew I was growing colder by the minute. I sat under the tree, caught my breath and knew that yelling would not help as the sound on that rise went up, not down. From somewhere, I heard the singing of a single coyote. It wasn,t very close but close enough that the sound wasn't muffled. I stood up but saw no movement. I got a little nervous without a flashlight but at the same time I knew I was o.k. After a few minutes the singing started again and I turned toward it and walked a few feet. The sound came again from over my shoulder. I turned and walked toward the sound. This process kept up for about 10 minutes while I realized they were singing me out of my predicament. Then the singing was of multiple coyotes and I saw a few long tails and backsides moving through the woods ahead of me in the moonlight. Just as I caught up with them, I could look down on the lights of my old home, touch the barbwire and head for familiar territory. I had been roaming barely 500 ft. from my house for over 3 hours! It seemed like barely one. But to this day, I know the coyotes heard my plea for help and marched me out before I grew too cold to take care of myself.
"Since you are part of nature, the strings are in you and you can learn to nurture them and relate harmoniously to them (Nature) forms an attraction intelligence that produces nature,s optimum of life, diversity, cooperation, balance and beauty.
"One touch of Nature makes the whole world kin.-Shakespeare.
2. The coyote encounter returned me to a some primal state of sensing that I was "safe and in no danger. I was assisted in a way that families help their kin. I was a part of a much larger family than the human race.
3. I have had many webstrings torn from me through divorce, moving, separation, loss. This memory is my touchstone, the piece that I share with those who have forgotten or feel they never have had, an intimate connection with Nature. I asked for help in human language; the coyotes responded in their language and yet we both understood each other. What beauty! What a gift. I would not be the same person without this experience.
4. I was given another level of self-confidence and understanding during these 3 hours.
5. The natural world was quickly returned to my city-dwelling person in a moment of silent panic.
6. From Jennifer: Realizing that nature supports me allows me to share myself more fully with the world. Feeling and leaning into the support of nature allows me to be expanded and to feel safe. If I could remain connected all the time, I would always be safe.
7. Summary Option: I felt very attuned to what Celita said: "The summary option just reinforces my believe in nature and God, because you don't have to touch it to know it exist. There are things out there are not explained and not supposed to be. Things just are and in that truth you find peace instead of chaos. We must pick the moment to say why and to let go.
8. trust, non-verbal communication, inherent connectiveness
9. Letting go of control by our limited capacities opens us to more expanded capacities through other senses.
10. Peaceful thoughts came over me upon awaking after recalling this time. It always does, even though I've had many profound experiences of a similar nature. Now I want to have this experience every day, every waking moment. I'm reminded of how Life becomes so simple non-verbally.
11. I know that asking Nature to communicate with me is always responded to in some form but I catch myself doubint it when I am too long and too confined in the non-natural world or its thinking components.
12. I am passing along what I learn to my clients by sharing parts of the activities as we go.
At my job, one of the projects we are working on is restoring a creek that was rerouted early last century for railroad access to a coal mine. With all the blasting and such that was done, a man-made waterfall was created that prohibits salmon from swimming upstream to their spawning sites. Even after almost 100 years, salmon still pool up below that waterfall, feeling the call of their ancestors from upstream. One day, when we were out at the river on a field visit I was lucky enough to have a few minutes alone. As I stood along the side of the river, I suddenly could feel the gratitude -- it was like the river was speaking to me -- thanking me and the others who are finally working to restore her natural systems. I have never forgotten that moment, and the project has been divinely guided with money showing up at just the right time to do the next thing that needs to be done.
Share this website with a friend:
,
INSTITUTE OF GLOBAL EDUCATION Special NGO consultant United Nations Economic and Social Council
PROJECT NATURECONNECT
Readily available, online, natural science tools
for the health of person, planet and spiritP.O. Box 1605, Friday Harbor, WA 98250
360-378-6313 <email> www.ecopsych.com
ORGANIC ADVANCED ECOPSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION
The Natural Systems Thinking Process
Dr. Michael J. Cohen, Director
send email
All programs start with the Orientation Course contained in the book
The Web of Life Imperative.
.
