Welcome!

Welcome! This is a place to share how we celebrate & deepen our relationship to Nature. Here you will find stories, images, & ideas about wilderness, human nature, & soulfulness. Drawing from the experiences of everyday living, the topics on this blog include: forays into the natural world, the writing life, community service, meditation, creativity, grief & loss, inspiration, & whatever else emerges from these. I invite you on this exploration of the wild within & outside of us: the inner/outer landscape.



Friday, June 10, 2016

Inner/Outer Landscape, Revisited

It is the experience of our inner selves in dynamic interaction with the outer world, especially the beings and expression of nature, that is central to the idea of the inner/outer landscape. Whatever we are bringing to the moment (fear, elation, wonder, sorrow) joins with what is outside of us (coyotes, beach, mountain peaks, a clearcut forest).  

 Examples of the intersection of inner/outer landscapes: 

navigating the intensity of a loved one’s impending death (inner emotional/spiritual journey as well as the physical and relational circumstances associated with the person dying)

listening to the bamboo chimes outside the window (e.g., the calm resulting from the beauty of their sound)

seeing the “green flash” of a sunrise or sunset

watching a pair of dark eyed juncos build a nest and lay four eggs over several weeks

seeing the smattered yolk, broken shells, and frayed twigs of the nest after they got accidentally diced up by a weed whacker

having a conversation with a friend or loved one in which each is changed, internally, by the exchange (sharing a personal vulnerability, a great moment of success, a confession, an achievement)

watching the cycles of nature over the seasons and years in a particular location

feeling the warm summer breeze on bare shoulders

smelling the scent of the sakura (cherry blossom) before ever seeing the tree in the distance
watching the flitting bird with bright colors outside the window and learning from the birding field guide that it is a cedar waxwing

This list of examples is not finite. Please - in this luscious season of long days - give yourself the gift of exploring your own inner/outer landscape. 

 (I posted a version of this definition here five years ago.)
...paper birch bark collected on a hike; paper I hand-made one rainy afternoon (pulped from grocery bags, scrapped notes, madrone bark); watercolor paints; adhesive; the memory of a hike through woods fifteen years prior...

All blog images created & photographed by Jennifer J. Wilhoit unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: "©2016 ; JenniferJWilhoit/TEALarbor stories. AllRightsReserved."
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