An inside peek reveals much to a student.

November is here.  The year, which once was new, is winding down, and wrapping up here on the farm with eye candy fall colors, of scarlet red, pumpkin orange and sunshine yellow. Did you notice

Here on the farm we introduced a new program last month, Dances With Nature.  It is true, I read in the book, “Last Child in the Woods” that we are living in a “nature deficit” world. So many are removed from the romance of nature and its healing, therapeutic qualities.

Perhaps you grew up in the sixties like I did and you remember being out in the woods at dusk. Maybe you remember raking a big pile of leaves and jumping into them one after another.  Did you gather the various colorful leaves and paste them on construction paper for your science project and did your best to explain why the leaves go from green to scarlet? And who could spell the word chlorophyll?   

Our gourds did very well this year. Pumpkins fair.

Do you remember that walk in the woods hearing the leaves crunching under foot, while the breeze rustled overhead in swaying treetops above you? Then you hear an eerie noise. On high alert, you sigh to find the screech is only a tree branch rubbing another. I always feel an omnipotent presence of the great I Am as I stop, look and listen during a walk in the woods.  Awe the splendor of autumn.   Worse though, is if you find yourself too  “grown up” now and you mumble “look at all these leaves I have to rake,” or you already start thinking too far into the future mumbling, “winters next—Ugh!” And you sigh.  

If there is one thing I have learned, when being around kids and especially special needs kids this past month, here on the farm, is life should not be hurried but enjoyed.  Oh, my goodness, the splendor on those kids’ faces when feeding an apple nugget to the minis…simply marvelous. Watching them feel Henry the goat’s beard brought wide eyes and big smiles. On the wooded trail and prairie walk, they drank in the splendor of a warm October breeze, feeling the warm sunshine on their faces searching for clues of the forest…living in the moment.   

One of my favorite places on our farm. So tranquil. The banks of White Oak Creek.  Need a hammock or picnic table to write from or nap in. LOL.

So I say all that to say this: Be a kid again; drink in the splendor of the planet. Do a little dance with Nature. Take a walk in the woods and feel it lift your spirit.  Or be like Henry (not my goat) but Thoreau—he never stopped looking into nature for ultimate Truth. Always looking to nature for greater intensity and meaning for his life. And by all means Take Joy!