Last year I wrote a piece about my nature calendar practice
from a decade ago (http://tealarborstories.blogspot.com/2015/08/monday-musings-nature-calendar.html). At the end of
that Aug 31st post, I state my intention for reincorporating the nature calendar
practice into my daily life: "I’m ready to embark on this practice again myself…Beginning anew, I will see what emerges..."
Two days ago, I chose August 2016’s nature calendar as my Image of the Week (8/31/16).
Yesterday,
when I checked my blog out of curiosity to see what I had posted one year ago, I read the August 31, 2015 post and found the nature calendar writing. I had forgotten that I ever wrote about that. I was humored to realize that the original written
post date and this week's image post date match exactly - one year apart.
Apparently, I
followed through with my intention. I have been crafting nature calendars since
September of last year – starting the day after the nature calendar reverie
blog post.
It’s very
simple: one found natural object per day placed on the “calendar template” (a
white cloth covering a circular piece of cardboard). The first item gets placed
on the first day of the new month, and for each day thereafter. On the last day
of the month, the calendar receives its daily item, a photo is taken, objects are
returned to the landscape or kept as writing prompts for workshops. The
template stands empty from about dusk on the last day of the month until dawn
on the first: a pause to honor endings and beginnings.
During this year
since the original nature calendar blog post, I have relocated back up to the
Pacific Northwest, a geography with flora and fauna that I’ve come to know and
love (and consider “my family”) over several decades, a place I call “hearth”
and “home.” It is a landscape in which I have wandered, hiked, roamed, paddled,
skied, sunbathed, bicycled, motorcycled, created art, wilderness fasted, cried,
slept, run, written, taken photos…
Now I have the photographic
images for the eight months – so far - of 2016 monthly nature calendars here in
the PNW…and a few photographs from last year’s. (The very first
renewed-practice of nature calendars was September 2015, pictured at the bottom
of this post.)
That written intention in a blog post a year ago has come alive in a simple, beautiful daily
practice that makes me feel good, that is interesting, that keeps me connected
to the seasons and natural world within steps of my home, and that offers that
gift back to the world in photographs…as well as a serene human being in
dynamic interconnection with all beings…humans included.
This is one
small way we can engage with the nonhuman world, and bring the fruits of that
dynamic relationship back into this beauty-hungry, peace-thirsty world.
 |
| first nature calendar (Sept 2015) of my renewed practice |
All blog images created & photographed by Jennifer J. Wilhoit unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: "©2016 JenniferJWilhoit/TEALarbor stories. AllRightsReserved."
