The Need for Nature

A great (and hour-long) presentation by Richard Louv on The Abundant Childhood: Nature, Creativity and Health

Crossing the Threshold

When I first started blogging 4 years ago, the title of this blog was called Liminal Space. I've changed the title four times since then but remained in a liminal space. All you had to do was read my posts in the past 2-3 years to know that my life and vocational calling was going through a transition that can only be described as being out of the room I had been in (pastoral ministry) but not quite into the next room (what my next steps were), I was living in the hallway, the in-between. These past few months and years have not been easy for me or my wife. All the while, I've been trusting that something better was on the horizon and that life would finally start to feel like living again not just getting by.

Today, I feel like for the first time in years I am no longer living in liminality. I believe that I have now crossed the threshold and stepped into the next journey of my life and vocation. This past weekend, I was offered an opportunity to be an outdoor educator at a local nature preserve. This is the kind of opportunity that I've been praying for for some time now and I can now begin living my heart’s longing: to lead people back into the wild to reconnect to the earth, our souls, one another and to the Creator.

This is an exciting time for me and I hope the start of many more good things to come.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

Rock On Sylvia!

Sylvia Utz just celebrated her 110th birthday on March 9th!

I have a connection with Sylvia, she is a member of my home church (Pitsburg Church of the Brethren) and I remember her and her husband always making time to talk with me and my sister. Trust me, she still has a sharp mind and sense of humor as the article mentions.

You can read the Dayton Daily News Article here.

Persistence Hunt

I posted a few weeks back about hunting. I mentioned in that post about the stalking techniques I learned at Tracker School and was asking the question about modern hunting and if it can really be called hunting. This video of the Bushmen of the Kalahari better demonstrates a portion of the technique I was speaking of. The Native Americans would have used similar techniques.

I think there is a spiritual connection between the hunter and the hunted and modern hunting techniques do not account for that. This video demonstrates it beautifully. As someone posted on the video

"this is the most honorable death for the animals.....to kill an animal suddenly with a gun or slow injection is wrong as well it is not natural...their spirit would not have prepared for death....as seen in this video the animal was so calm and prepared for its time to leave the earth."

I agree.

Tracking Quiz

Alright here's another fun tracking exercise. It is much more difficult than the kids game I showed in December. There are 20 photos of tracks and I was able to identify 14.

Click here to take the challenge.