Meeting the Great Mother: Developing a Relationship with Nature

Time with nature teaches us empathy, compassion, resilience, reciprocity, and intentionality. Time with nature teaches us patience, communication, mindfulness, and stewardship. To spend meaningful time in nature is to learn to be in agreement with the land and ultimately, with all our relations. Nature is one of our youth's most important teachers. Developing a strong relationship with nature as a youth provides life-long benefits including benefits to mental health, physical well-being, and understanding what it means to be in true community with all living things around you.

In this workshop we will be:

- learning to ground to the Earth

- learning to recognize how our personal energy feels

 - learning the Indigenous concept of animism

- learning to feel the energy of our plant relatives

- learning to communicate with nature around us

- spending time intentionally exploring the forest land at Yanawana Herbolarios

- spending time helping the land team with a simple land task

Indigenous nature teaching stories will be woven throughout the class as well. Activities will be interactive and play based.

Cost: Ticket cost is listed as Free but please read the information below for actual cost of workshop.

It is important for youth to learn the concept of reciprocity. It is also important for youth who are learning to be in relation with nature to have caregivers who are (learning to be) in relation with nature. Therefore the cost of this class is as follows:

For the youth - An offering for their instuctor, this should be something chosen by the youth and that has meaning to them. It could be a rock, a drawing, a feather, etc., anything that holds value to the young person. The caregiver of the youth should explain that part of the cost of the knowledge is that they (the youth) make a meaningful personal offering in exchange for that knowledge as a sign of respect to the knowledge being shared and the one who is sharing it.

For the caregiver of the youth - Community Land Work day at Yanawana Herbolarios takes place alongside the youth Sowing La Futura Series. We require a caregiver of the youth participating in the SLF class to participate in the community land work day. This is for several reasons. 1. ) To ensure there is easy access to the caregiver in case of emergency. 2) To ensure the caregiver is also developing a relationship with the land. 3) As a means of payment for the class.

This class is open to youth ages 5 - 16 years of age.

We will be spending time outside amongst the dirt and wild things so youth should be dressed in rugged clothing (closed-toe shoes please) appropriate for the outdoors. The forecast for this day is predicted to be cool and a high of 60 but no rain. We will have water and snacks but bring a sack lunch and something comfy to sit on (we will have simple sandwhich fixings for anyone who forgets their lunch.)

Host or Publisher Yanawana Herbolarios