Rediscover

Nature Walks

Jeanna GLeave a comment

We often had nature walks as a part of our learning experience in elementary school. We’d have a list of critters and plants to hunt for on these walks. 6th grade took it to the next level and we were assigned the Leaf Project. We had to find and identify a ton of different leaves, and put them in an album. It was a lot of work, but it nurtured my love for nature. Also in middle school, I helped to create the recycling team. We were responsible for getting recycling bins into every classroom, and then emptying them every week during homeroom. I’m still very conscious about recycling, reducing, and reusing materials, and not just because Earth Day is every day, but because waste not, want not.

I spend a lot of time outdoors for my job, so I’ll admit that, when my shift is over, I prefer to head inside to a cool, dark place. (FYI: North Carolina is hot.) However, I miss my nature walks. In celebration of Earth Day, I’m going to make a goal of going on two nature walks per month. I go on dog walks every day, but I’m actually going to go to a new trail, a new set of trees, and new body of water to admire and enjoy. And I will whisper two things to my surroundings: 1) thank you and 2) I’m sorry on behalf of of the humans who don’t know better or care more. As a student of kinesiology, I work with the understanding that, if we don’t take care of our bodies, we’ll have no place to live. The same goes for our beautiful, fragile planet.

On my nature walks, I vow to leave my phone in the car. I think Earth Day should have a subtitle: Look Around You Not at Your Phone Day. I also vow to leave the trail better than I find it. I hope more people do the same on Earth Day, and every day.

Throwback Thursday

Jeanna GLeave a comment

It’s amazing how what I thought was history, is still a current event. Storytelling is how history is preserved, whether spoken aloud, written, or recorded through visual arts. What surprises me though, is when my daughter does something I used to do as a kid, but it’s not anything I ever shared with her. (This is a good reminder of how much our kids are learning from other sources!)

For example, she came into my room this morning and started singing, “Miss Susie had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell, Miss Susie went to heaven, and the steamboat went to hell-o operator…”

Hello is right! Now I probably should’ve shook my finger at her and told her that rhyme wasn’t polite, but I went right on singing every word as if I’d just sang it yesterday.

Later on, she was making up some silly rhyme and asked what rhymes with twelve. “Elves!” she shouted in response to her own question. Then she knelt down into her Crocs and says, “Look momma! I’m an elf!” We used to do the same thing!

Then that prompted me to think of how we used to lie on our backs and hang our heads off the sides of the bed, cover our faces from nose to hair with a bandana, draw a face on our chins, and then put on a silly skit like that. Maybe I’ll show her that trick next Throwback Thursday.

I guess even those who do know history are destined to repeat it.

Dandy Lion Wishes

Jeanna G3 Comments

Blow away the seeds of a dandelion and wish that a dream come true returns to you. How many dandelions can you find, and how many wishes can you make? What would you wish for? To see someone again? To gain something new? To have more of something you already have? To get back something you lost? Would you make a wish for someone else?

As a child, every so often, my dad would quietly wake me up early on a Saturday morning and tell me to get dressed and meet him at the car. We’d take the old, green Oldsmobile to breakfast at the Dandy Lion diner, just me and him. I probably ordered pancakes. I don’t actually remember. I don’t remember the conversations either. And I don’t remember much about what the place looked like, or even what town it was in. What I do remember is being there with my dad. Just me and him.

Early this past Saturday morning, my daughter and I were able to drive down to scoop up my dad on his 84th birthday and take him to a local diner for breakfast.

My Dandy Lion wishes came true.