Beautifully written and grateful you had this opportunity to open your bustling mind to the beauty of the birds, trees, trails of animals and natural sunlight. Channeling your inner Thoreau restored you. April will reconnect you. We benefit by living a life of intentional balance. Nature shows us so much. Preserve time to explore it and enjoy it.
Yikes, I hope that you are okay? Good you have prior warning and, in this case, can stay conneted.
It’s a constant battle to prioritize that 'intentional balance' over the performance of being busy, but the clarity that comes from the sunlight and the trails is hard to argue with. April can't come soon enough :-)
I appreciate how well you expressed your bone-felt contentment on your week off the grid.
I teach students whose days consist of a screen until sleep, a screen upon waking, a screen at the breakfast table, screen carried from home to car to school to car to home to bedrooms, where some have VR glasses to use. There is no outside moment. Their young experience IS "mediated through rectangles of glass screens that promise stimulation without friction", including the teaching tools at school, where there is less experimentation, less reading, less transmission of knowledge; all their days are via glass screens. And we know the outcome: lack of focus, energy and drive, and more vitally, the cessation of curiosity to learn.
There is a book called, " Last child in the Woods", by Richard Louv, who coined the term 'nature -deficit disorder', a cultural condition. He states that children have become detached from direct contact with nature, and that this loss has deep psychological, developmental, and spiritual consequences.
I live many hours each day in Thoreau's " tonic of wildness” for I am blessed to have close access to walk in wilderness. I understand why organizations fund one week camp wilderness outings for children stuck in lower income regions, who can't afford trips away from the inner city. Undoubtedly, those children's spirits are revived, they experience the connection to what not so long ago was the norm, a rhythm balanced through light of seasons.
From books I've read, less than a century ago, the daily way of life was lived as you did this past week; they felt a " tired that carried dignity rather than depletion." I think this is what our ancestors felt, not so long ago, when they settled a piece of land, and needed to chop the trees, to create a small space to grow, much like you did for the saplings. Every day was carrying water, and chopping wood, and yet, at night there was calm contentedness when all was going well to listen to one sing, another sew, read or play a game. Be assured, I am not nostalgic or weaving a romanticized version of that time, I like heat and running water! But, surely we would benefit from a pendulum swing to acceptance that in our minds and bodies we are still a human who thrives in those ways, for they are beneficial to our body and spirit.
As you said," it is fashionable... to speak about human well-being as though it were a complex engineering challenge." But it isn't a challenge nor does it require complex engineering. It is simple, so simple that lately I've noticed those who can are outdoors, or they are having weekend retreats in the woods, stepping into ice cube baths to revitalize the dormant cells of energy and drive. These trends recognize our need as human living spirits to have Movement that tires us, Natural Light that shines on us and Sleep that provides deep contentment, all condition of vitality for a life well lived.
If, as you wrote, our "cognition is conditioned by movement", and if "the sedentary organization of modern life is shaping not only our moods but the quality of our collective judgment", we need to change the ways young people are living their days, screen to screen to screen without outdoor activity or breathe.
This is one of my favorite comments ever, thank you Wendy. As a teacher, you are seeing the 'quality of collective judgment' being shaped in real-time by this sedentary life. It’s a tragic trade-off: we provide students with infinite information but deprive them of the physical rhythms that allow them to process it wisely. Your description of the 'simple' life, the calm of sewing or reading after a day of labor, perfectly mirrors what I felt while fencing the saplings. It isn’t nostalgia; it’s biology. Thank you for the work you do in trying to keep that curiosity alive in such a mediated world.
I especially like your point about the difference between dignity and depletion, it’s a distinction our ancestors understood instinctively, but one we’ve traded for a very thin version of 'productivity.'
I am blessed that Sophie reads so much and her school, 14 children per class, is very focused on nature and traditional learning, including chess competitions and dialogue...
Wishing you many more hours in your own wilderness:-)
Beautifully written and grateful you had this opportunity to open your bustling mind to the beauty of the birds, trees, trails of animals and natural sunlight. Channeling your inner Thoreau restored you. April will reconnect you. We benefit by living a life of intentional balance. Nature shows us so much. Preserve time to explore it and enjoy it.
My comment was written while in a closet due to a tornado warning. Sometimes technology has its advantages to give and receive.
Yikes, I hope that you are okay? Good you have prior warning and, in this case, can stay conneted.
It’s a constant battle to prioritize that 'intentional balance' over the performance of being busy, but the clarity that comes from the sunlight and the trails is hard to argue with. April can't come soon enough :-)
All is well and school was not in session but winds rocked a friend’s truck on the way to work.
Whoa! That's scary.
Thanks.
I appreciate how well you expressed your bone-felt contentment on your week off the grid.
I teach students whose days consist of a screen until sleep, a screen upon waking, a screen at the breakfast table, screen carried from home to car to school to car to home to bedrooms, where some have VR glasses to use. There is no outside moment. Their young experience IS "mediated through rectangles of glass screens that promise stimulation without friction", including the teaching tools at school, where there is less experimentation, less reading, less transmission of knowledge; all their days are via glass screens. And we know the outcome: lack of focus, energy and drive, and more vitally, the cessation of curiosity to learn.
There is a book called, " Last child in the Woods", by Richard Louv, who coined the term 'nature -deficit disorder', a cultural condition. He states that children have become detached from direct contact with nature, and that this loss has deep psychological, developmental, and spiritual consequences.
I live many hours each day in Thoreau's " tonic of wildness” for I am blessed to have close access to walk in wilderness. I understand why organizations fund one week camp wilderness outings for children stuck in lower income regions, who can't afford trips away from the inner city. Undoubtedly, those children's spirits are revived, they experience the connection to what not so long ago was the norm, a rhythm balanced through light of seasons.
From books I've read, less than a century ago, the daily way of life was lived as you did this past week; they felt a " tired that carried dignity rather than depletion." I think this is what our ancestors felt, not so long ago, when they settled a piece of land, and needed to chop the trees, to create a small space to grow, much like you did for the saplings. Every day was carrying water, and chopping wood, and yet, at night there was calm contentedness when all was going well to listen to one sing, another sew, read or play a game. Be assured, I am not nostalgic or weaving a romanticized version of that time, I like heat and running water! But, surely we would benefit from a pendulum swing to acceptance that in our minds and bodies we are still a human who thrives in those ways, for they are beneficial to our body and spirit.
As you said," it is fashionable... to speak about human well-being as though it were a complex engineering challenge." But it isn't a challenge nor does it require complex engineering. It is simple, so simple that lately I've noticed those who can are outdoors, or they are having weekend retreats in the woods, stepping into ice cube baths to revitalize the dormant cells of energy and drive. These trends recognize our need as human living spirits to have Movement that tires us, Natural Light that shines on us and Sleep that provides deep contentment, all condition of vitality for a life well lived.
If, as you wrote, our "cognition is conditioned by movement", and if "the sedentary organization of modern life is shaping not only our moods but the quality of our collective judgment", we need to change the ways young people are living their days, screen to screen to screen without outdoor activity or breathe.
This is one of my favorite comments ever, thank you Wendy. As a teacher, you are seeing the 'quality of collective judgment' being shaped in real-time by this sedentary life. It’s a tragic trade-off: we provide students with infinite information but deprive them of the physical rhythms that allow them to process it wisely. Your description of the 'simple' life, the calm of sewing or reading after a day of labor, perfectly mirrors what I felt while fencing the saplings. It isn’t nostalgia; it’s biology. Thank you for the work you do in trying to keep that curiosity alive in such a mediated world.
I especially like your point about the difference between dignity and depletion, it’s a distinction our ancestors understood instinctively, but one we’ve traded for a very thin version of 'productivity.'
I am blessed that Sophie reads so much and her school, 14 children per class, is very focused on nature and traditional learning, including chess competitions and dialogue...
Wishing you many more hours in your own wilderness:-)
This confirms something I've believed for a long time: the worst invention of all time is the alarm clock.
True... I wake up naturally the same time every day...