Tuesday, May 4, 2010

For The Children



"Dancing Trees" 28x32" oil pastel, Kathleen Faulkner



I recently heard about a new type of school called The Forest school. Kids learn outside in the woods all day, every day, rain or shine.  I can see it now:  little kids in rain gear, eating lunch on a tarp in the rain.. Not such a bad thing if you're a kid hungry for adventure.  I can't think of any child that doesn't like to play in the rain or just be outside.
It is so easy to love and appreciate nature and wilderness when it has become a part of one's life: what's not to love?

Humans tend to fear the unknown.  Children making friends with a forest might end up being what saves us..



"The rising hills, the slopes,
of statistics
lie before us,
the steep climb
of everything, going up,
up, as we all go down.

In the next century 
or the one beyond that,
they say,
are valleys, pastures,
we can meet there in peace
if we make it.

To climb these coming crests
one word to you, to 
you and your children:

stay together
learn the flowers,
travel light"

                                                                               Gary Snyder,  Turtle Island