tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post114931212883969550..comments2023-07-23T00:49:12.363-07:00Comments on Tables, Chairs & Oaken Chests: Physical Mental and Spiritual Health of ChildrenChris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-1150345328681417002006-06-14T21:22:00.000-07:002006-06-14T21:22:00.000-07:00Thanks, Friends. Yes, Pam, I agree about the shive...Thanks, Friends. Yes, Pam, I agree about the shivers! Me, too!<BR/><BR/>Cat and Linda, thanks for commenting. This is a primal connection, after all, and our bodies know it...Chris M.https://www.blogger.com/profile/05125825966802002625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-1150336228409272512006-06-14T18:50:00.000-07:002006-06-14T18:50:00.000-07:00Thanks for this post. It affirms my belief that th...Thanks for this post. It affirms my belief that the best thing urban teachers can do with the few field trips allowed is to forget the museums and such get outside. One of my fondest memories is taking a class of third graders on a hike in Redwood Park. It was just after a rainy spell, and there were mushrooms everywhere. Every time a kid spotted new ones, he or she would holler "mushrooms!" and twenty kids would come running. Each time! It amazed me, because you don't really need to run to see mushrooms, they're not going anywhere soon. But there is something really charming about all that enthusiasm for such a simple, quiet wonder.Lindahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07902966318737643742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-1150329253063254952006-06-14T16:54:00.000-07:002006-06-14T16:54:00.000-07:00Thank you for your post. The fact that I grew up ...Thank you for your post. The fact that I grew up in the woods seems as important a part of who I am as a spiritual being as anything else in my life experience--and yet, it's something that would be so hard to explain to anyone for whom nature is an abstraction rather than a childhood friend.<BR/><BR/>I know that, when I travel outside the biome I grew up in, I feel cut off from something vitally important to me. Home is more than a place on a map... it's a presence. I'm just not "all there" when I don't get to be around trees, leaves, and wild things.Cat C-B (and/or Peter B)https://www.blogger.com/profile/10002916434676859262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-1149964748450617682006-06-10T11:39:00.000-07:002006-06-10T11:39:00.000-07:00Wow, the pictures of your homeland gave me shivers...Wow, the pictures of your homeland gave me shivers (well, especially the waterfall) <BR/><BR/>Makes me think perhaps there is something primal about physical home. I am from Philadelphia, and love Minnesota, but something in the landscape of the middle atlantic states resonates with me in way that even lake superior doesnt'.<BR/><BR/>I am glad to live about 10 blocks from the Mississipi, and to be able to walk my dogs by the water, a bit away from roads and traffic. <BR/><BR/> I was recently reading <I>Hope, Human and Wild</I> by Bill McKibben, in which he profiles two impoverished areas of the world with a high quality of life (one purpose being, I think, to suggest how the rest of us might choose to organize our surroundings once the looming environmental crises hit)<BR/><BR/>and one of his examples is a city in Brazil in which they greatly increased the amount of parkland (and public transit, and social programs) - he claims that from most (all?) windows in the town you see mostly green. <BR/><BR/>I have never lived in anything but a big city (St. Paul or Oslo being the smallest) but I have always found the pockets of nature. I was actually surprised to find how difficult it felt to find such nature in "the country" where everything seems to be farmland. (a sparrow just landed in my 5'6" cherry tree - the branches are still pretty small, and it swung wildly for a moment) <BR/><BR/>I had been meaning to get a copy of that book, I'm glad you brought it up. I have just requested it from the library (4 holds before me, perhaps it will reach a good number of people!)<BR/><BR/>peace<BR/>Pamefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01439718927967964939noreply@blogger.com