Musings and Reflections

Maples

Today I lead the cohort online Community Building session. As the name implies, the intention of the session is to build community with the cohort and instructors. I have not met any of my cohort or instructors in person and wanted to give them an opportunity to get to know me and each other in thirty short minutes. If we were meeting in person, I would take everyone on a short nature-infused walk. I also wanted to incorporate some of the experiences, learning and thoughts that I have had so far based on the readings, online discussions, and presentations. The Indigenous scholar and readings made me think of storytelling and had me wonder if we could weave our stories together while on a virtual walk. I thought it was important to consider how we relate to nature, the ability for nature to provide solace and the impacts that climate is having in our own neighbourhoods and parks.

I decided to do a virtual walk using photos of an iconic maple tree in the park near my home. As we had done some breathing exercises the day before, this seemed like a good way to start and finish the walk. I had the group start with the ocean breath or Darth Vader breath which involves constricting the back of the throat while inhaling and exhaling to make a sound like the ocean or Darth Vader breathing. Doing this breath is calming and warms and energizes us. We finished with the energetic breath of joy.

For the walk, I used four images of the maple tree. The first is a lovely fall photo with the leaves golden and the water level moderate (see above). The second was later in the fall, with most of the leaves gone and the water level quite a bit higher. The third photo showed the tree broken off by the extremely high water that flowed over it (see below). The last photo showed the spring sunshine on the lower water flow and the tiny branches sprouting out of the remaining trunk as a sign of the resilience of the maple tree (see the last photo).

As I showed each image, I provided a narrative and then asked the participants to share any thoughts, memories, or reflections that the photos or stories raised for them. The first two photos generated some nice reflections from those that spoke. Unfortunately, I did not foreshadow the third image of the tree broken, and it was a shock for the participants. It did provide the opportunity to mention the grief that we feel with the loss of nature and resulted in a discussion about that. The final picture is such a lovely picture that the participants thought it showed how they had missed other details of the environment when the iconic tree was there. Also, the fact that the tree was making efforts to grow again was a symbol of renewal, resilience, and hope.