Get Outside, Play, and Have Fun!
Day 1 Wild Wonder Nature Journaling Conference and of #wildwonderchallenge
Today is the first day of the Wild Wonder Nature Journaling Conference with John Muir Laws, author of A Field Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling. This conference runs for 4 more days. Every morning of the conference, John “Jack” Laws will read a poem.
The poem of the morning was “Foolishness? No, It’s Not” by Mary Oliver
Sometimes I spend all day trying to count the leaves on a single tree. To do this I have to climb branch by branch and write down the numbers in a little book. So I suppose, from their point of view, it’s reasonable that my friends say: what foolishness! She’s got her head in the clouds again.
But it’s not. Of course I have to give up, but by then I’m half crazy with the wonder of it — the abundance of the leaves, the quietness of the branches, the hopelessness of my effort. And I am in that delicious and important place, roaring with laughter, full of earth-praise.”
For me, this poem speaks to how I feel when walking on the beach at low tide, looking for interesting creatures - again! I know I can’t possibly see everything and yet I walk and look and stoop and peer into pool after pool and walk, and walk. I am often there early, alone or one of only a handful of people, and I am often there long after many folks have gone away. Sometimes I think to myself, “How foolish of me, to be here a second or third day in a row. Didn’t I see enough?”
But my self-critical voice goes quiet as soon as I step onto the pebbles and is gradually replaced, as I get closer to the water, with excitement, anticipation, and, with the first glimpse of a colorful seaweed or fish, joy! And on the rare times when I find, a new colorful slug or snail, I gasp and cry out “Aha!” and smile at being in this”delicious important place,” witnessing the mysterious-ness of nature and feeling “full of earth-praise.”
Looking at the line up for the conference, I admit to feeling a bit stressed. So many great instructors and every topic was interesting to me but I knew that there was no way I was going to catch every workshop. Doing so would not be healthy for my body or my mind or my emotions.1 I need to get outside and move every day. For more about this topic you may want to read my previous post:
So I was very pleased and relieved that one of the first things Jack told everyone to do was NOT to sit all day and try to catch all the workshops. Workshops are being recorded and so we can always watch the recordings at a healthier pace!
Instead, Jack told us all to get outside and enjoy our wonderful world while we still can and I agree. I know it will feel morbid to some, maybe many, to say that we are all going to die one day but it is a truth we cannot avoid however much we try not to think about it. Something that keeps me from morbidly dwelling on this truth however, are more words from Mary Oliver, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
I know that I would rather spend time exploring the beach while I still can! Now in our 50’s and growing creaky, there is something my spouse and I remind each other of often. “We might as well enjoy as much as we can, while we still can!” we say as we head out on another birding walk or camping trip.
The Daily Wild Wonder Challenge
Every morning, Jack will also issue a nature journaling challenge. The challenge for today was “play and have fun!” In response to this challenge I decided to go out to my garden, pick some blackberries and make some art using the juice.2
First, I just got right in with my bare hands and smashed the berries.
Then I did a little finger painting.
I let that dry and then added to my art using Carand’ache Neocolor II water-soluble crayons, watercolor, marker, and oil pastel.
I captured all this in a short video. I hope you will enjoy watching me playing and having fun. To see the video you can go to my Instagram page @awildbraid.
I hope that you also will find time in every day to play and have fun because we only get one life and, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”3
Sincerely,
Alma
A Wild Braid Nature Journal is part of A Wild Braid project in which my mission is to show ways that nature walking, nature journaling, and creativity can be easily accessible, especially for those who think they have no time or have no artistic skill. To learn more, please visit www.awildbraid.com.
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Tell me what you wonder: about nature, about nature journaling. I can’t guarantee that I will have an answer but your questions might spark a fruitful inquiry and I’ll be happy to share what I discover or already know.
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My sympathies to all the students and teachers who are back in school and in desks for much too long than is healthy or even effective, despite so much science that says it isn’t healthy and well as the evidence of many of our own lived experiences!
These are Himalayan blackberries which are non-native, invasive and sort of crazy to let live in the garden but 1- they are very difficult to remove completely so I’ve opted for a keep-them-at-bay philosophy and 2-they do taste yummy. So we are currently in a truce with each other. I think.
And I hope you don’t overthink this! If you feel comfortable, I hope you share with me what play and fun looks, sound, smells, feels like for you.