Hello Reader
I’m settling back into shrub-steppe desert life after a wondrous week near Mt. Rainier for my ordination process with Seminary of the Wild. (Photo proof from our outdoor ceremony below!)
Being in the forest for five days really makes an impact on the body, the psyche, and the heart. I’m still processing the experience, and feel a renewed moxie about being of service to people who want to deepen their relationship with the living world, explore their history with place, and commune with nature companions.
Please reach out if that’s a kind of support you are curious to explore! (Simply reply to this email, or via my updated website at the link right below.)
Cheers,
Jennifer
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Weekly Reflection 🌲
- Weekly Practice ✨
- Locals! Free Talk & Walk 👟🌿
- Little Tender Things 💚
- Video Resources! 🎥 ✨
WEEKLY REFLECTION
Get Simpler, Get Wilder
Jennifer Ruth Keller
The first day or so in the forest I still try to think, find myself tracing tails through the woods with the motions of someone who presumes there’s a place to get to. And, since I normally live in a shrub-steppe desert environment, my eyes have to adjust to the verdancy all around. I simply can’t receive the flood of green on offer.
Somewhere in day two I begin to settle, can feel my eyes and brain adapt, relax, and let in the surfeit of lush emerald hues and textures all around. My skin and lungs swell with gratitude at the rich air, almost voluptuous in my nose, and mouth. My movement starts to slow to the pace befitting the environs, and a no-destination playfulness becomes possible.
Day three a greater opening slips in, takes hold, as my release into the forest environment deepens, and my sensory antennae have dilated, relishing the nuance and details that now pop with clarity, seeming to suspend time: a wave of leaves lifting with the breeze, a drop of dew in a fern, a monarch catching sunlight as it flutters past a branch, a salamander in a pond with ooze-like motion, the centering presence of a mother cedar with roots wrapped around a boulder.
And then, in day four, during a morning to dusk wander, a day in which all the concrete specificities of the forest somehow acted both like I wasn’t there, and, like I was the target recipient of their grand demonstration, a guiding communication came to me, which I’ve been sitting with ever since: “Get wilder.”
I’m not sure how, concretely, this will surface or be embodied within my life. For now, I’m enjoying the invitation it is, and know instinctually it needs to be accompanied with the gift to myself to also “get simpler.”
To let myself let go of concerns and efforts that are superfluous or inconsequential, to savor and celebrate the pristine delights of summertime with a seven-year-old, to let it be okay that there is so much that will never “get done,” and to honor how much stunning goodness is with us, at every moment, if we let our eyes adjust to seeing it fully, and rapturously.
What might “get wilder” or “get simpler” be for you this season?
WEEKLY PRACTICE INVITATION
The what: What is your “wild”?
For you, what way of connecting with the living world might carry a tone or sensation of “wildness”?
Maybe it would involve a new place. Or interacting with a plant that’s new to you. (Or an insect! Or flower! Or animal!) Maybe it would be exploring a sense that you typically under-enjoy. Or changing up the time of day you go outside. Or how you express yourself in nature, and with nature.
The how: Without overthinking it, select one tiny form of “wildness” to try and explore this weekend.
Notice your body’s response as you explore the tiny wild. Are there familiar sensations? Surprising sensations? Beckoning-to-you sensations?
Remember: being with nature can be FUN too.
Local Talk & Walk
Saturday, July 11
@ 10:30-11:30am
Join me as I offer a free intro forest-bathing style experience as part of the WSU Master Gardeners’ public education series at the Kennewick Public Library.
Meeting point: Waterfall Outdoor Classroom.
LITTLE TENDER THINGS
Hello Creeping Buttercup,
I see you ducking behind
greenery, as though we’d miss
your open yellow invitation
to pause, and soften,
and bend down towards
you with humble
reverence.
Video Resources! 🎥✨
Every view (and sharing a video, or this newsletter) contributes to my effort to offer free resources and events because that’s one way I develop partnerships and collaborations with regional organizations.
And, every small act of support helps me build towards my dream goal of having a “mobile nature unit” that travels throughout our region to offer threshold, nature-rich experiences for youth and adults.
Thank you!
