An Anglican church in the U.K. is replacing their traditional hymns with songs from U2. Read more here.
January 29, 2007
U2-charist
An Anglican church in the U.K. is replacing their traditional hymns with songs from U2. Read more here.
January 26, 2007
Less of a headache
I tend to get a headache when I read certain blogs that are packed with A LOT of info and I noticed that my own blog fell into that category. So I decided to simplify the blog and focus more on the posts rather than all the other content. Hope it gives you less of a headache and let me know how it looks while I'm still tweaking it.
January 05, 2007
Childhood Nature Memoir
I am writing this a form of therapy after having completed Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. I encourage you to sit down and write a Childhood Nature Memoir of your own, you might be suprised as to what you've forgotten. My next post will include reflections form the book.
When I am asked to ponder my childhood (and early teenage years), my most vivid memories and images are directly connected to nature. My summers were spent swimming, fishing, climbing trees, building forts, swinging, riding my bike, playing hide and seek, throwing a baseball etc… Simply stated, I was outdoors all the time.
We lived out in the country in a 3-bedroom ranch style home about 10 miles east of Greenville Ohio. I had most everything that a boy could ask for, not to mention my best friend lived only a mile from me. It was there that I remember being allowed to wander free without fear or hesitation. In fact, my parents encouraged it. Behind our house sat an old abandoned campground site where just beyond its grasp laid a captivating, untamed woodland and a clear, indigo creek surged. It brings to mind a few instances where I was able to get back into the woods and discover oak trees that had yet to be climbed, trails yet to be carved out and a creek that begged for a boy to leap in to. I only had a few years of play in this “unscathed wilderness” because the old campground site was soon bought up to accommodate a new four million-dollar home and a fancy row of pine trees to insure its privacy. Needless to say, if I wanted to get back to the woods I had to do so under the radar of a security system. It wasn’t that I didn’t try a few times either. I would later have access to the creek because of a local historic mill about a mile away that was powered by that creek. I would ride my bike or walk down there all the time to walk the trails and hear the running water from the falls to the mill.
Our backyard became my safe haven where I could chase my dogs around, handle frogs and snakes as well as lie on my back and gaze at the clouds during the day and contemplate the cosmos and the stars at night. We had bonfires out in the backyard using an old semi rim that Dad found; we’d roast hot dogs, make s’mores and invite neighbors over to visit. Since we didn’t always have money to go on vacations, Dad always made sure to set up our big 8 person tent in the back yard a couple of times a year for us to camp out.
I loved being outdoors even when the weather wasn’t cooperating. There were countless times that I would stand outside watching storm clouds and thunderheads rolling the sky amazed by the impeding danger that was to come. When it got really bad, dad and I would sit out in the garage with the garage door open in our lawn chairs and listen to the thunder and watch the lightning and the rain. It was always good times.
When my folks bought the house in 1978 there were only two trees on the property, when we left it 21 years later there were ten. My dad wasn’t much of a naturalist but he did love to plant and take care of our trees and my mom enjoyed tending to her flower garden when it wasn’t being destroyed by countless entities.
My mother’s side of the family were farmers and I remember helping out and being on the farm helping with chores and just being around the animals. Strangely enough, I never went to camp growing up because of my involvement in baseball. I was involved with Cub Scouts for a few years but my involvement in sports took precedence.
But it was when I had no structured time that I believe impacted me the most because it gave way to my creative imagination. That is how I learned what I know today not because I studied it or was tested on it rather I made a special bond with that moment. The experience became a part of me. More to come…
When I am asked to ponder my childhood (and early teenage years), my most vivid memories and images are directly connected to nature. My summers were spent swimming, fishing, climbing trees, building forts, swinging, riding my bike, playing hide and seek, throwing a baseball etc… Simply stated, I was outdoors all the time.
We lived out in the country in a 3-bedroom ranch style home about 10 miles east of Greenville Ohio. I had most everything that a boy could ask for, not to mention my best friend lived only a mile from me. It was there that I remember being allowed to wander free without fear or hesitation. In fact, my parents encouraged it. Behind our house sat an old abandoned campground site where just beyond its grasp laid a captivating, untamed woodland and a clear, indigo creek surged. It brings to mind a few instances where I was able to get back into the woods and discover oak trees that had yet to be climbed, trails yet to be carved out and a creek that begged for a boy to leap in to. I only had a few years of play in this “unscathed wilderness” because the old campground site was soon bought up to accommodate a new four million-dollar home and a fancy row of pine trees to insure its privacy. Needless to say, if I wanted to get back to the woods I had to do so under the radar of a security system. It wasn’t that I didn’t try a few times either. I would later have access to the creek because of a local historic mill about a mile away that was powered by that creek. I would ride my bike or walk down there all the time to walk the trails and hear the running water from the falls to the mill.
Our backyard became my safe haven where I could chase my dogs around, handle frogs and snakes as well as lie on my back and gaze at the clouds during the day and contemplate the cosmos and the stars at night. We had bonfires out in the backyard using an old semi rim that Dad found; we’d roast hot dogs, make s’mores and invite neighbors over to visit. Since we didn’t always have money to go on vacations, Dad always made sure to set up our big 8 person tent in the back yard a couple of times a year for us to camp out.
I loved being outdoors even when the weather wasn’t cooperating. There were countless times that I would stand outside watching storm clouds and thunderheads rolling the sky amazed by the impeding danger that was to come. When it got really bad, dad and I would sit out in the garage with the garage door open in our lawn chairs and listen to the thunder and watch the lightning and the rain. It was always good times.
When my folks bought the house in 1978 there were only two trees on the property, when we left it 21 years later there were ten. My dad wasn’t much of a naturalist but he did love to plant and take care of our trees and my mom enjoyed tending to her flower garden when it wasn’t being destroyed by countless entities.
My mother’s side of the family were farmers and I remember helping out and being on the farm helping with chores and just being around the animals. Strangely enough, I never went to camp growing up because of my involvement in baseball. I was involved with Cub Scouts for a few years but my involvement in sports took precedence.
But it was when I had no structured time that I believe impacted me the most because it gave way to my creative imagination. That is how I learned what I know today not because I studied it or was tested on it rather I made a special bond with that moment. The experience became a part of me. More to come…