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| telling stories:Dove Valley Centre, Wild Day Out, June |
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| summer arrives: chives in flower at Dove Valley Centre |
Maybe the Joseph Cornell* connection isn’t as awkward as I am thinking it is, but so much of my work is really about sharing joy that sometimes it is a bit overwhelming. No, not a gushy, weepy, saccharine sweetness but a sense of delight: in the world we explore, in the discoveries we make, in the memories we renew (Oh, so that’s a ground beetle), in the people we share these moments with
And delight runs deep. Joy is a vibrancy that doesn’t actually need smiles. They are nice but delight wakes a sense of richness in ourselves and our world that, hopefully, lasts beyond the edges of a smile.
When I’m telling stories, that is what I am feeling. Even when the story is grim or sad, there is still a richness in the occasion: in the imagery used, in the emotions evoked, in the experience shared. Art and exploring workshops are equally potent: to walk on mud, to listen to the wind in the trees, to stand in the park at the end of the street and realise there are stories hidden inside beetle and earthworm and flowers in the municipal flowerbed, leaves me reeling a bit by the end of it all
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| a beetle and a grasshopper setting out on an adventure (WH) |
So, I feel that my work is about sharing joy…just hope that spills over to the groups work with too!
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| a cheerful fox at the Wild Day out |
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| a thoughtful moment at an Ecoschools conference |
*Cornell’s book “Sharing the Joy of Nature” was a seminal environmental education text in the transformation of env ed back in the 80s
Schools and places:
Windmill Hill Primary School, Runcorn
University of Derby, Eco schools committee challenge day, June 11th 2014
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| the (slightly scary) rabbits of Windmill Hill |
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| a story not told (yet) of an owl and a fox |
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| grasshopper! |
