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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, July 2, 2021

So Very Much More

I spent five days last week immersed in a nature journaling conference. I had never attended this conference before or even known of its existence. But a dear friend told me about it this past winter and I registered right away.

 

I have been writing, noting, journaling, recording, thinking, researching, meditating, photographing, occasionally painting and collaging, and guiding others through the natural world for a very long time. The journals I have kept rarely have hand-drawn sketches; often they are prose, praise, prayers, and (less often) poetry about wild beings outside my door. 

 

So, a conference that was utterly focused on creating images for journals about nature was a refreshing and welcome challenge. I was introduced to a host of new media (art supplies – yes!) as well as how and when to use them. I met a whole slew of new folks who put nature journaling front and center in their lives. I listened to inspiration, encouragement, exhortation, poetry, stories. I watched video clips, heard music (human- and nonhuman-made), traveled around the globe virtually, was guided through others’ notebooks and journeys, and took field trips. (Alaska’s icebergs were refreshing to view even as I sat sweltering at my art table on the second hottest day on record here!)

 

Nature journaling is so very much more than it’s cracked up to be.

 

This conference opened a door to a wider view of possibility. 

 

It is possible to thoroughly engage and completely enjoy-as-thrilling something that is difficult, at which I don't feel very adept, that will take years and years of practice. 

 

But two of the most important gifts I received were “sight” and “fire” -

 

            I now see the world more deeply: patterns and details, priorities and frivolities, as well as 

the richness of an angle, hue, arc, shadow … 

 

I am now impassioned to continue with this new way of journaling: with stamina and 

practice, showing up for and nurturing intimacy with all beings, as well as letting go and 

letting go and letting go of expectations, outcome, judgment … 

 

These are life lessons, not just nature journaling ones!

 




























































All blog images created & photographed by Jennifer J. Wilhoit unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: "©2021 Jennifer J. Wilhoit/TEALarbor stories. All Rights Reserved."