Research on Druidry Week 5, Earth Path Reflections: Foundations

Updates on my ongoing research into Druidry via the year long dedicant course courtesy of the Black Mountain Druid Order

My Homework
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Month 2 Week 1 Earth Path Reflections: Foundations
For the rest of this week, try to spend at least fifteen minutes per day in nature. Go to a park if there is one nearby, or just spend time out in the back yard if you have a yard. Pay attention to the moment, observing what you see going on in the natural world around you.

Try this: Before going out on your daily nature exercise, take your pulse and record the number of beats per minute. After completing your fifteen minutes of simply observing nature, take your pulse again and record the number of beats per minute. Was there a difference?

As you become practiced at observing nature, focus on the stillness. Picture your mind as the surface of a lake. Allow your mind to become quiet. See the ripples of thought on the lake of your mind slowly calming until the surface is like glass.

As you practice this for this week, it may help to do the Basic Mindful Meditation from the previous lesson.

After a week of spending time in nature, post your reflections on these questions:
1. As you spend time in nature, what changes do you notice in yourself?
2. As you spend time in nature, do you see things you've never noticed before?
3. Did you have any new experiences?
4. If so, what were they?
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1. As you spend time in nature, what changes do you notice in yourself?

Much like the first week, I immediately see balance being restored in my body, and in my spirit - it's as if I was viewing those old weigh scales and someone deposited something heavy on the other side, and it starts creeping into balance, lifting me up!

Very inspiring.

I feel more alert, I'm not sure if its due to the extra oxygen, additional sensory input etc. Whatever it is, I feel my senses heightened.

2. As you spend time in nature, do you see things you've never noticed before?

Definitely, Im trying to pay attention and learn more about the plants and animals in our area. I was getting pretty good at identifying every tree on my property in Virginia, but we're now back in Canada so I'm having to re-aquaint myself with the local trees here. I know the commons ones, Pine, Oak etc. But now am starting to recognize plants, shrubs and other less common trees.

When my mother was a kid she used to know every name of every plant she could see, and when I was young she taught them to me. But she grew up on the farm, I in the city and suburbs.

3. Did you have any new experiences?

Yes!

4. If so, what were they?

This week I started to notice the flight pattern of Chickadees as they approached my bird feeder. It's like a wave! They start falling in an arc, then flap their wings briefly, rise up and forward, then start falling down again. Like a sine wave for any of you science majors!

Yet I notice the Junkos and other birds don't do it quite like that as they approach the feeder, they have more of a direct flight path.

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