Finding our passions
If you haven’t already gotten the idea, our schedule this week should give you a clear picture of how far-reaching this program really is. This isn’t just naturalist training, or tracker training, or wilderness survival, it is all of these and more. This week, in particular, any observer would notice that on certain days, some of us were clearly in our element, living our passion and fully enjoying everything. The very next day the same folks might be yawning or sighing their way through the activities. It was fun to notice which of us were lit up, engaged and beaming, on which days. It is also good to remember that all of it is expanding our minds and adding to the richness of our lives here.
One day was spent learning about medicinal plants, focusing in on one local northwest forest plant in particular, Oregon Grape (Mahonia nervosa). It was a mellow day involving some meditation time in the forest, some lecture inside, some wild plant collection, and some tincture making. We made some strong connections with the Oregon Grape, from which we will all get to take some of our group tincture when it is ready.
Another day was a tracking day. We went out to new locations in nearby towns to hone our animal tracking skills and improve our non-track animal sign awareness, such as evidence of feeding, shelter, and territory marking. This was a less structured yet more active day of wandering exploration, playing detective. Many of us saw tracks we’d never seen such as tiny Deer mouse tracks, as well as various animal sign such as kill sites.
Our third day, switching gears yet again, had a mentoring theme. This was a more theoretical day, learning about and discussing the Coyote Mentoring method and different learning styles and experiences. We did get some activity time in ourselves, as well as some of our new favorite pastime of snowball fights. After all, the making of a good mentor has got to involve the ability to let loose and play, and we are all honing this skill quite well.
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