We are blessed with actual winter weather here in Virgini: below freezing nights, frosty mornings, and snow will arrive soon! The winter birds are at the feeders all day and the squirrels come to me when I call them, saying I’ve put their breakfast of nuts on the porch rail. The frogs are breathing through their skin, sleeping in the creek-side mud, and the coyote’s song wafts down from the high orchards.
We have passed the “bleak midwinter” though. Imbolc, in early February, is the midway point between the winter solstice and spring equinox; it marks our emergence from winter. It is a time of fire and light: candles and hearth fires symbolize the returning sun and inner light, with celebrations involving candle-dipping and bonfires. Underground, even in the snow, seeds begin to subtly stir. Our fist patch of snowdrops nod their heads beneath the poplar by the porch.
With this sense of earth’s slow awakening and new life gestating, LifeWays and I invite you to join the course Kinship with Nature is a Family Affair! Together we will celebrate this time of nature’s re-awakening, beginning February fourth and traveling through early spring till March 11th. This is the perfect moment for a journey that will take us more deeply into kinship with the natural world and all her feathered, furred, foliated and finned beings.
Kinship with Nature is a Family Affair will travel through the elements and realms of nature in an embodied way, incorporating song, movement, blessing, story and much more. Research shows intimate connections with nature improve our health, mood and sense of purpose. Science affirms that the child’s love of nature, and its many health benefits, depends upon their adult’s depth of connection with the natural world. Are you not quite sure how to deepen and express your own love of nature? Would you love to know how to “pass the torch” of nature connection to the children in your care? Join us in this joyful learning process!
Please forward this invitation to friends and family!