Human Nature School Quarterly Newsletters
Winter 2023 Solstice Newsletter
Summer 2023 Solstice Newsletter
Spring 2023 Vernal Equinox Newsletter
Winter 2022 Solstice Newsletter
Fall 2022 Autumnal Equinox Newsletter
Spring 2020 Vernal Equinox Newsletter
Fall 2019 Autumnal Equinox Newsletter
Summer 2019 Solstice Newsletter
Winter 2018 Solstice Newsletter
Fall 2018 Autumnal Equinox Newsletter
AUTUMNAL EQUINOX NEWSLETTER 2024 Happy Autumnal Equinox Everyone, It is the time of year to celebrate the abundance of gifts life provides and practice the art of letting go of those which no longer serve us. The trees have always been my greatest teacher in this lesson of letting go, and that we can be beautiful as we shed our old and get ready to reflect on the new. With the heat that we have been having, summer is showing us to continue enjoying the outdoors with the warm days and cool crisp mornings. I hope you all get to enjoy walks in the forest this fall to take in the smells and sights of the forest in its time of release. My move into a new house, and the current heat wave inspired me to do some gardening. I have raised garden beds outside my window, facing the south, which was begging for some kale to nourish and grow. I thought I would never find kale starts at this time of the year, but put it out there that if I did I would try to grow some winter garden greens. A few days after this, what do you think I found while walking around the neighborhood with my son in the stroller? Yes, a big flat of kale- red and green. I did not feel comfortable walking up to the door in that minute, but thought I would somehow make it back there. Well on Tuesday, my mother and I were taking a stroll with Solomon to go explore 17th street, and we happened to pass by the house. I approached, asked the dogs if their human was home, and waited a few minutes. Then a man came outside, and I introduced myself and asked if by any chance he could part with a few kale starts. He smiled and said, “Please- take them all.” I reminded Solomon that this was just one of the many times life has reminded me that it never hurts to ask. It never hurts to try. So now, we have two garden beds- full of kale. If it grows well, there will be more than enough to share. Come have some miracle kale. Karibu! (Kiswahili for welcome) I am feeling the joy of abundance in landing here in Traverse City and joining this organization. My journey has just begun with Human Nature School, but already it feels like a perfect place for me to be to share my love of nature and the importance of having a healthy connection with our environment. I hope to be able to reach more people in the Traverse City area and am looking forward to getting ideas from the greater HNS community on how to make that happen. Please take a few minutes to complete the following survey. It will give me some guidance and support in deciding which direction to take HNS this next year. The community of people I have met so far have been beautiful and supportive. Thank you for welcoming me into the Human Nature School community with such open arms. I hope you are able to come and introduce yourself at our Potluck Bonfire at the Optimist Club Property on October 19th. If you are unable, and would like to meet and share about HNS I am available to take a walk or have some tea. Thank you, Sarah Brummel Complete the Survey Here PROGRAMS & EVENTS  Accessible parking available. Reach out to Sarah@humannatureschool.org with any questions. The Fall Homeschool Session is off to a wonderful start! Stay tuned for Winter Programming registration.     Are you interested in visiting, or volunteering as a guest storyteller, skill sharer, or any other sort of merriment-maker at programming? Fill out a general volunteer application below.Get Involved HNS T-SHIRTS ARE BACK IN STOCK! Artwork by Lena Wilson   GETTING TO KNOW SARAH Contributed by Joelle Hannert I was lucky to be part of the search committee to hire a new Executive Director for Human Nature School; it was definitely the most interesting and authentic search committee I’ve participated in. We wanted to share some of that experience with the broader HNS community, so I interviewed Sarah once more, this time with less job-focused questions. Joelle: While we were doing interviews, we started them the way we start all HNS gatherings, with sharing gratitudes, and I loved your response to that…I guess maybe it was a mix between appreciation and recognition and I got the sense that the practice was familiar to you. Would you agree, and is there anything you’d like to add about your relationship to gratitude? Sarah: I think I realized in my life – the saying is silly that ‘having an attitude of gratitude is what brings happiness,’ but I found with teaching that when I was spreading that to students it really was truth, and whenever I’m having a bad day, if I think about things I’m grateful for, it shifts the mood. So it was really refreshing to hear that you were starting with a gratitude circle, because it just brings us all to a similar place in ourselves and being present. It let me know from the beginning that I was in the right place! Joelle: What is something that you’re feeling grateful for these days? Sarah: I’m in one of those bubbles where everything is just falling into place perfectly. It was super super amazing that this job came my way when I was in such a place of need to be doing more of my soul’s work, instead of just what my mind can do and my body can do. Joelle: I feel the same way, as someone on the search committee; when things started falling into place with you I just felt so much excitement and hopefulness! Can you talk about your childhood experiences with nature connection as a child growing up in Michigan? My father and I had a Sunday tradition where we’d take a walk. So we’d go to this area of woods that was probably a quarter-mile down the road…(It’s since been developed; it was really hard to see that happen! That was after I’d grown to be an adult. I’d have been crushed if it was when I was a child.) But we’d follow this trail in; there was a pond that led to a creek that eventually led to the lake that I lived on. It was an area where we’d see herons, and get to see geese and ducks. And I remember as a kid having a lot of trust, because the bridge that we crossed was very makeshift, you had to balance yourself to get across, and once we were on the other side it was just that freedom of having the forest to explore. And my father, now that I look back on it, he was much more of a mentor than an educator when we were in the forest, because he would just kinda be there, and every once in a while he would point something out, or hear my questions instead of just talking; he would just be present.And that was my original experience in the woods, being able to go and explore, and it was usually just him and I. And then when I got older, I would take my friends back there, and we would do friend hikes. Joelle: It’s so special to be able to have that kind of relationship with a place where it’s kind of acute in a way…there are so many trails around here, lovely, majestic places, but there’s something really special about a really familiar piece of land, which is something that I feel the kids get in homeschool session when they’re returning week after week to spaces that people might think of as mundane compared to, I don’t know, Empire Bluffs or something, but I think that’s something that can be really powerful. Sarah: Yeah, because I got to know that land at different stages in my life, when I was very young and my father was the guide – we started going back there was I was 5 or 6, and then when I was a teenager it felt like my domain, I would get to take my friends back there and show them where we’d hike. So yeah, it was a very safe space. Joelle: Aw, I’m sorry that you’re not able to bring Solomon there [Sarah’s son], that would’ve been really special. Sarah: It’d be interesting to go back and see what it is like now, actually. To see how the development now interacts with the forest. Joelle: From Michigan you went to school and then to work in California. Can you talk a bit about that experience? Sarah: So, the redwoods pulled me in. And then, when I was doing my program in Environmental Studies and doing an internship at Life Lab, that’s when I realized how much kids just love being outside learning, and love the freedom of it – and how much they absorb through their own observations. That’s when I created HOWL so I could take kids out on my own and do my own program. The focus of HOWL was to get children in nature to appreciate nature, away from any other distractions, and to help create conservationists for the future – without them really knowing it. Joelle: For someone who hasn’t been to the redwoods (which I haven’t), can you describe that bioregion? Sarah: You have to go! [Laughs] It’s these trees, these pines that we’re surrounded by [150-ish year old white pines at the NMC campus] but magnified times 4 or 5? I mean, their width and their height and their presence is just so amazing. They’ve been on this world for a thousand or two thousand years some of them, so the energy that they hold is…I feel that they’re the greatest teachers, and something that I want to protect. Joelle: Besides the redwoods, what other plant or non-human animals have you especially connected with? Sarah: Well the program I was running in Tanzania was for elephants – to help with elephant conservation and teach the kids about the matriarchal society within elephants which is just amazing, and teaches us as humans that we’re not the only species that organizes itself and cares about each other and remembers each other. So yeah, I would say elephants, but I also relate to giraffes because I’m tall [laughter]. There’s a saying in the Tanzania about the giraffes where you rise above, you look around, and you make a better choice, and I always embraced that. Joelle: So you’ve worked with kids outdoors in the redwoods of California, and in Tanzania, and now in Northern Michigan, which are all super different environments, but I imagine that there must be some kind of throughlines as well. What commonalities do you see in working with kids in all of those places? Sarah: I think I said in my earlier interview that when I’m in the forest I feel like I’m home, so it doesn’t matter where it is on the planet, and I feel like children are kinda the same way. When I was doing my program in Tanzania, we took the primary kids to a park where we could take a two-mile hike to a waterfall, and we’d often see water buffalo, maybe zebra – we saw a giraffe once…and in those moments, it’s just amazing to see kids’ eyes light up. At the waterfall, they would love to splash in the water and explore. It’s amazing to me how water unites everyone in a state of play. Some of my favorite photographs I got were a group of 5 or 6 girls who were just lifting the water up and splashing and enjoying it and their faces were just pure joy. So I think that would be the common trend, that seeing children’s reactions to nature is very common everywhere that I’ve been. It shows that kids are very natural in nature and they need it. I feel pretty lucky to have had as many experiences with kids as I have outdoors. Sarah, we feel so lucky that you’re here, and we look forward to sharing moments of joy with you and the HNS community! – Joelle    SAYING GOODBYE TO A DEAR FRIEND September 17, 2024 Carlton James Coats Contributed by Steven Holl In the HNS community Jim Coats found strands of cultural coherence that were both a balm and a beacon. He immersed himself in learning about indigenous culture as embodied wisdom in the Eight Shields path and sought to incorporate that in our fledgling community. Always eager to participate in gatherings and projects, a close and abiding bond was woven with founders Matt and Kriya as Jim tried his hand at everything they taught. From tanning hides to building fires, carving paddles and collecting books, Jim was all in. The inclusion of indigenous cultures, the wisdom and humility of simpler technologies, fit nicely with the recognition and acceptance of our weakness, errors and shortcomings learned from his career as a healer. As an elder he opened his home to us as a gathering place. Deep and earnest conversations took place there where we each in turn, listened and spoke at the very edge of discovery with reverence and joy; the whole was always more than the sum of the parts. We probed the question of what it meant to be an elder. He wanted to fulfill his role to the best of his ability. Often at the beginning or the ending of our circles Jim would stand and lead us in song. He sang for himself and he sang for the children. He sang for the four-legged, the two-legged, the winged ones, those of scales, fins and fur; he sang for white pines and beech trees, he sang for gardeners and dreamers who tend the fires of this season and the next. Jim hosted celebrations on the shore of the great waters out his back door; long lazy afternoons stretching into the night, swimming and fooling around peopled by old friends and new; babes, youngsters, teens, grown-ups, aunties, uncles, elders mythic and real. With Jim Coats we arrived at that place we dreamed of, a patch of this rich earth peopled with the perfectly imperfect, together with honor, respect and reverence. To this earth his bones and sinew return, while his fire now burns in our hearts, and in lightning bugs, butterflies, eagles and loons, bearing both heat and light for all of creation.  OUR HEARTS ARE FULL OF GRATITUDE FOR OUR SUMMER CAMP FAMILIES, INSTRUCTORS, VOLUNTEERS, AND PROGRAM COORDINATOR – RONDA VIETOR! THANK YOU FOR A BEAUTIFUL SEASON! WELCOME FALL! Donate to HNSGive to the Scholarship or General Fund and help keep Deep Nature Connection Programs thriving in Northern Michigan! DONATE NOW KEEP IN TOUCHF O L L O W on F A C E B O O KWebsiteEmailYouTube |
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