This past weekend found me flying through Houston to Northern Kentucky, and onto Cincinnati where I met up with Dr. Randall Eaton. His newest book, From Boys to Men of Heart, is just released and I joined my good friend to celebrate his excellent work. Here’s a great link to a review on Randall’s book and at the bottom of the review is contact information. We enjoyed a nice lunch and then drove together to Rowe Woods where our conference would be held. As Randall drove off Friday afternoon, I sat on the porch of the Retreat House there and listened to the soft rain dripping from leaves, the spring peepers that sounded here and there, and the Carolina wren noisily communicating with one another. The incredibly rich scent of the forest invoked powerful memories from my childhood wanders, turning over logs in the wet hardwood forests of spring in search of salamanders. The fall colors are beautiful on a misty day. The event hosts soon arrived. These good folks are associated with Ogichi Daa Kwe women’s camp, and Camp Kooch-i-ching, and the Camping & Education Foundation: Kathy Dix, Campbell, John & Mike Jolly, and Melynda Roscoe. Julianne did an amazing job of selecting, hauling (emptying her own house!), and setting up a homey ambiance at the Retreat House. I caught up on some work. We were meeting at Rowe Woods…
Rowe Woods was founded In 1965, a handful of dedicated and visionary naturalists, including Stanley M. Rowe Sr., Karl H. Maslowski, Kay Benedict, Helen Black, Katherine T. Nyce, and some other people. Creating a organization where people could experience, study and enjoy the natural world. Cincinnati Nature Center’s original site, Rowe Woods in Milford, Ohio, was the physical location for this new organization. Rowe Woods Photo Gallery.
For this gathering, I was invited to help share some teachings and lead some experiences at the Ogichi Daa Kwe Fall Retreat that was held through the Cincinnati Nature Center’s Rowe Wood’s property. Offered to folks in their network as “a rare opportunity of learning for educators, camp staff, parents and all who want to take wilderness awareness and mentoring beyond the classroom and text books”, I think we lived up to that description. This was a really great group of people with deep experience collectively in nature connection through a variety of backgrounds and roles. Lots of family energy too which made it extra special.
“Jon Young will incorporate Wilderness Awareness, Coyote Mentoring and Peacemaking in a 2-day workshop at the Cincinnati Nature Center, where we will immerse ourselves in the surrounding beauty of SW Ohio’s hardwood forests.”
Peacemaking & Nature Connection
As I shared with the participants: “…sometimes we teach weekends on Peacemaking,and sometimes we teach weekends on Nature Connection.” It was really special to bring those topics together, and one young woman’s perspective on how nature helps her to feel her best brought these topics together. Sky Young Sparrow Pope once said to a group of us at RDNA that nature connection was her primary relationship. Through this she was in touch with the Creator. Then she would be able to be her best for others.
We are left with this understanding: Nature connection, as a foundation, builds a sense of well-being in us that is equal to “Peace” with respect to Peacemaking: Peace, Good Message and Unity. If we are feeling really peaceful and connected, we can be at our best to choose our best words, and match them with our best intentions. This makes the “good message” come more naturally. When we approach communication in this way, we are more often able to reach a feeling of consensus or unity with others.
More from the letter sent to the retreat’s invitees:
A little about Coyote Mentoring from Jon Young’s book Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature:
“By naming Coyote as our guide, we challenge everyone to break out of old habits of awareness and to see wild nature and its elements with fresh eyes. We call out loudly and brightly for a re-imagination of how to learn natural history and how to understand the ecological web we are a part of. We use our voice to cry out from the wilderness for myth and play to merge with facts and science. Why? So people can once again really, holistically, know their place. We seek to bring health not only to human beings of all ages, but also to the earth itself, by reminding ourselves of our kinship with it.”
I was really thinking about this with people during our retreat. We talked a lot about how the goal of nature connection is actually really different than the goal of information transfer. The work of Michael Cohen and Project Nature Connect came up as Marcia shared wisdom gained from research and experience concerning sensory awareness (and the 53 senses that Michael identifies in his research). We discussed the connections that form between ourselves and through attentive recognition to all we consciously and intentionally take in through our senses, and how important it is to use ALL the senses as much as possible. We must overcome the patterning of our own learning and connection histories.
“Guiding like Coyote requires that you get to know the people you mentor. You have to watch carefully for what will capture their curiosity, engage their natural gifts, and challenge them in ways they can handle in their personal learning journey. Look for their edges: the edge of their comfort zone, the edge of their awareness, the edge of their knowledge, the edge of their experience. Then you can stretch and pull them to a new edge, and then another, deeper and deeper into a sense of comfort and kinship with the wildness of the natural world.”
This was truly the center of our discussions and experience this past weekend, as groups headed out to find new things together, and shared their stories back with one another in dynamic and multi-sensory presentations. Creativity was evoked and celebrated. The art of village-based questioning (based on authentic curiosity) emerged for all to experience. Storytelling took us from the beginning of time into the next two hundred years.
We all left with new friendships, deepened relationships with old friends and family, and a renewed sense of hope and fun!
Randall Eaton came in on the last day, Sunday, before lunch. He shared some stories and visionary research from his life and book From Boys to Men of Heart and brought us all to tears. Randall paints a very different possibility for what hunting could become (again) if our current American hunting tradition could become heart-based and attuned to the sacredness of all life, and if hunting could be again based on real cultural support, tears, sensitivity to animals and nature, mentoring nature connection and above all honor and gratitude. The heart must come back into hunting. Randy signed books for folks and we all ate yet another great meal and headed out our separate ways.
Julianne has set a new world record for making a space feel really inviting and homey.
Special thanks to Kathy, Melynda and Campbell for putting this together and inviting all of us to part of this event.
