Living with Nature

Last week I had a great conversation with one of the most amazing men I have ever met.  His name is Joseph Cornell, founder of the Sharing Nature Foundation and author of several renowned books on Sharing Nature®.  I wanted to talk with him about using some of the Sharing Nature activities to help our students understand what it means to live with nature.

One of the first things he talked to me about was Flow Learning™

Flow Learning™, “gives the teachers a simple, structured way to guide students into their own, direct experiences of nature. Through playful games that awaken the students’ curiosity and enthusiasm, learning becomes fun, immediate, and dynamic, instead of static and secondhand. The students emerge with a living, fresh understanding and reverence for the natural world.”

There are four basic stages of Flow Learning™ ; Awaken Enthusiasm, Focus Attention, Direct Experience, and Share Inspiration.  “Flow Learning™ is based on universal principles of how people learn. It provides a simple, natural framework that sequence nature activities for maximum effect.”

Joseph Cornell’s  Nature Activities™ are great for teaching kids, teens, and adults how they can perceive nature in a new and exciting way. These activities lift the spirit within us to new heights, in a way that isn’t possible to explain in words.  It’s best to try them yourself, and feel the difference.

At the Natural Living School, we will be using some of these Nature Activities™ to help participants understand the process of finding and sourcing materials for their buildings.  These activities can also be used to help participants locate a building site, and to stay connected to nature during all phases of the construction.  Many times we disconnect ourselves from nature, to focus on the building process, and end up removing trees, damaging natural landscape, and clearing animal habitat unconsciously.

Living with nature means understanding your surroundings.  Using all your senses to feel what is happening, and what needs to happen.  Believe it or not, nature spirits can talk to you, if you are willing to listen, and respect them.  Nature talks to us through our heart feeling, which is like a radio station, that needs a little help tuning in.   These Nature Activities™, that Joseph Cornell created can help us fine tune our radio station, so we can live with nature, build with nature, and live a more natural life.

Thank you Joseph Cornell, for your inspiration and support:  the text in quotations above is from his website.