http://inner-wilderness.com/blog Transform Your Relationship With the Natural World Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:41:01 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en One part of my regular Sit Spot routine in nature is to give thanks to the various aspects of nature I want to keep in my awareness, so that I remember to pay attention and to appreciate their direct relationship to me. Fortunately, there is a rich tradition of a ... http://inner-wilderness.com/blog/2009/11/23/the-thanksgiving-address/ Halloween: What are you going to go as? It’s that time of the year where we publicly pay regards to the darker side of life. As we watch the leaves shrivel and fall and we prepare for the hardships of winter, nature reminds us that summer is balanced by winter ... http://inner-wilderness.com/blog/2009/10/27/all-hallows-eve/ If you are already feel thoroughly familiar with everything woolly, then skip to the bottom for a photo quiz of some other fuzzy beauties. The brown and black woollies are not hard to find these days—you have to swerve to miss them as they book it across the roads in ... http://inner-wilderness.com/blog/2009/10/12/woolly-worms/ This week has seen the Earth in a brief balance with the sun as the sun glides over Earth’s equator to bring the autumnal equinox where the night equals length to the day. This sets off the season when we allow the yang energy of summer to pass and we ... http://inner-wilderness.com/blog/2009/09/23/equinox/ I had the good fortune to spend a weekend at the beach with a good friend near where the tidal Potomac meets the Chesapeake Bay. On this trip, I kept being drawn out onto the water at moonrise as darkness arose. My kayaking partner and I set out to explore ... http://inner-wilderness.com/blog/2009/09/08/estuary-dreams/ NPR’s Living On Earth segment ran a story this week about silence in nature. Though this story could be interpreted as decrying human noise pollution, another listen could help us focus on being mindful of our ears. Acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton in the NPR piece reminds us that “all the ... http://inner-wilderness.com/blog/2009/08/24/listening-at-the-middle-river/ Workshop participants recently set out to practice a silent movement technique called fox-walking. The goal: to move silently and stealthily through the environment so as to not be readily heard or seen by the wild neighbors. Fox-walking is a stalking skill passed down from indigenous peoples worldwide, and perfected here ... http://inner-wilderness.com/blog/2009/08/10/workshop-fox-walking-ellicits-dog-growl/   I got a wild hair some years ago living back in D.C. and decided I was going to spend the whole summer barefoot- an experiment in “back to nature”, urban style. Of course, there were places I wasn’t allowed to go without shoes, but amazingly there were not as many ... http://inner-wilderness.com/blog/2009/07/23/brave-soles-listening-with-our-feet/   The rains this spring have made for some dramatic changes in the local landscape, turning the Valley into a rainforest full of bugs! I’ll be the first to admit, the biting flies are starting to dissuade me from a wilderness walk. Which means it is time to review my insect ... http://inner-wilderness.com/blog/2009/07/18/natural-insect-repellents-at-cranberrys-in-staunton/ photo by Karla Souder   What superpower would you want? The ability to fly? Wallcrawling? Telekinesis? The superpower most animals seem to want is invisibility! It’s what keeps them alive to see another day. Can you see the animal in this picture? Invisibility isn’t just about not being seen, but is also about ... http://inner-wilderness.com/blog/2009/07/10/psychological-benefits-of-practicing-invisibility/