Writing our own songs from the land, this is the high bar. This song was written in the UK during the first UK Art of Mentoring, July 2010 and performed by the first Ontario Art of Mentoring, August 2010.

White Horse Bridge

This is the land of the long setting sun
connecting my people as tribes, has begun
Come together as One

Dream our life that’s awaiting
Dream now awake
See skylarks and white horses rising
Calling our Name

Wheels within wheels we spiral around
soaring through sky and rooting in ground
Come together as One

Go to the hedgerows and hillsides
Elders rattle the bones
Peacemaking ‘wakes in the children
Calling our Name

“Now here’s a sad song for ya, it brings a tear to me glass eye”  quips Uncle Gerry,

“It’s so sad even the cross-eyed had tears runnin’ down the back o’ their necks…”

Gerry Brady is a trick a minute.  “I’m the only leprechaun in captivity” .

There’s a lot to be said about the joy this man brought to myself and the UK Art of Mentoring.

But one moment in particular has meant a lot to me.  I was giving him the lay of the land about

how Nature is the source of Culture.  That our mission is to regenerate resilient culture again by

immersing the people in nature, mentoring them to connect to the depths.  He got it.

I told him that I personally wanted to see the artists, musicians and visionaries celebrated and in the

center of culture again.  He said, “You have to learn this song, Come by the Hills”.

He sang it to me, taught me the chords and blessed me with this gift to take home with me as a poetic

expression of the power of my mission.  A beautiful elder moment.

Well Gerry, I learned it.  And I shared it with Maine Fiddle Camp this summer, a music culture camp,

regenerating new england musicians.  It was a fitting message for them.  Take a look:

(Come by the Hills: words by William Gordon Smith, to the tune of “Boys of Ireland ”
(Musicians: Left to Right, Owen Marshall, Ellen Gawler, Mark Morey, Molly Gawler)
(Filmed by: Lucia Rose Morey, 10 )

One of the keys to healthy culture is the creation of song, poem and story that reflects our values, dreams and visions.

As a cultural creative I have looked to other cultures to get a clue about authentic songs and stories. Songs written from the land, songs with power. Until recently this was a pattern in many places, borrowing songs from other cultures to express the intangible connection to nature that we value so much.

Recently in Vermont and the Art of Mentoring, we put out the high vision that we will become the visionaries and artists again. We will write our own songs, from our direct experience with nature, held by our authentic community.

Three songs were created, by the teen girls, the teen boys and the children.

The song from the girls was about water.

The song from the boys was about fire.

and the song from the children was about the birds and bird language.

The song about fire spread to the west coast, whenever hand made fires were being made. And then to Europe. And recently to Africa. Jon Young went on a special trip to the Kalahari to spend time with the San Bushman and this is the story he told in England this week:

I’m in th UK tonight in a 500 year old Manor Cottage.  Thatched roof, the whole deal.

I arrived with Evan McGown to Heathrow airport.  We’re here for the first UK art of mentoring.

We learned a song, after an official cup of tea, called Raggle Taggle Gypsy O !

The scene of English Gardens, castles, and manicured Manor lawns provided the backdrop to the passion the singers
brought to this song.  Listen in to the lyrics, what is this song expressing ?

After having done some research, art of questioning and curiosity, I found these origin stories and lyrics:

http://www.contemplator.com/child/wraggle.html

an even older version:

http://www.contemplator.com/child/johnnyfa.html

There is a lot ancestry coming together this week, england, ireland, scotland, american, native american, german, sweden, netherlands.  As we track ancestral connection to nature together, we will find a common longing for nature connection, and for our wild selves.

Back in Toronto.

Circle

Square

Last night I gave a three hour talk at the Royal Botanical Garden.

It started with the awareness question of  “Notice all the squares in the room, anything that is a square or rectangle.”  Then another question: ” Notice all the circles in the room”.   Once asked, the shapes came into our awareness.  What else is like that ?

The next awareness: “Notice the shape that we are sitting in”.  Rows in a large square shape, all facing the one presenter.  “Feel what it feels like in your body, right now.  Now, everyone get up and rearrange themselves into one circle”.

Once settled, I asked, “So what does it feel like now ?”  People shared these things:

I feel vulnerable.

I’m participating.

I’m responsible.

This is like community.

I can’t hide.

If rows of chairs (squares) is like content (school) then a circle of chairs is like context.

Front row only education is a shift in the context of learning.  It’s a shift in culture.

Where else can we shift the context to create cultural change ?

Today’s post is an audio clip from my recent Toronto talk, a wicked brief 2 minuter.

It’s a special edit for the folks that I spoke to in Montague, Ma recently.

What if I gave up knowing ?

To create the changes we would like to see in the world, in our community, our family, and in ourselves, we might have to start by giving up knowing what we know.

A little uncomfortable, yes.  But how is it working sticking to what you always thought was real ?

If you liked the 2 min audio clip, let me know.  I can post another audio story about a profound encounter with… “Our friend Possum”.

Today’s post will be short since I am dropping in a 10min clip from the Toronto evening talk.  This talk was at The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and we had over 100 people in attendance, plus a subway train with distemper.

The theme: Mentoring deep nature connection, it’s the Mentor’s Choice

A couple of things to think about:

How does mentoring work ?  Take a look at Brain Patterning and the Learning Cycle

The Mentor’s Choice

What is the implication of this when the topic shifts towards community resilience ?

Peacemaking ?

How about discovering personal vision and legacy ?

What is needed then ?

If you found this provoking, please comment !

Today started at the nature center at the Royal Botanical Garden.

Snapping Turtles are an edge experience

We had 39 people register for our day long workshop.  The morning was about Brain Patterning and the Core Routines of nature connection.  The afternoon was an experiential session outside.

Right off the bat a young woman came up to me with and told me that her dad had come to the talk the night before, “Thank you so much,” she said, “He told me it had a really big impact on him”.

I saw my young friend with the sit spot Zine, he was there for the day as well.  He approached me as well and said “It meant a lot to me to tell you my stories, thank you for listening and inviting me to come back and be a part of this”.  Big smiles all round.

An older woman came up to me and said that she was part of the Whole Child School. She told me that what I was talking about is exactly the curriculum they are creating for children.  They have been working on starting up this school for four years, and finally opened it up for registrations.  600 people applied.

It’s time for a new and bold approach to raising our children.  We are the cultural creators of our child’s future.  If we don’t step up and raise our children, someone else will.

Themes from the talk:

Learning is a product of how Brain’s create Patterns.

The learning cycle looks like this:

The Brain Pattern Cycle and the introduction of Core Routines

Brain Patterns are formed by four things: Mind Focus, Sensory Input, Curiosity and Adrenaline States.

Brain Patterns determine our perceptions, and our perceptions determine our worldview, our sense of reality and what ultimately we believe.  From there it is a short jump to say I tend to reinforce what I already know.  I need to be secure, especially under the stress of living, so I go with ‘what I know’, which is based on my sensory perceptions, based on my brain patterns.

For example I grew up in a suburban environment and played on my lawn everyday.  I played on other peoples lawns.  I was soaking in a lawn culture.  A few years ago, if you asked me if robins existed in the neighborhood I grew up in, I would have to say “No”.  I look back, no memories of Robins.  Nope.  None.  Instead of considering that I may have a blindspot, or that perhaps its something I didn’t know, and didn’t know I didn’t know it, I simply believe that “There were no Robins, because I have no memory of them”.  That forms a belief that they don’t exist there.  I might make up a few things to support that, like,”my friends didn’t see them either.  Neither did my parents or anyone in my family.  Nobody talked about robins, let alone birds.  Nope, not there.”

I think what drives that is a need to be right about my reality, to know something, to be safe.

Down the line someone introduced me to Robins.  “look at that bird !”  “listen to that sound !”  “do you hear it ?”  “What colors do you see ?” “Can you imitate what it sounds like ?”  These kinds of questions stimulated new brain patterns for me.  They made me curious.  The excitement of my mentor made it even stronger.  The attention they placed on this bird, visually and aurally drew my mind to focus on it.

The rest of my life now includes Robins.  Pretty much anytime I see or hear a Robin now, there is a lawn nearby or it is on the lawn.  Robins are a product of lawn culture.  So what happened in my childhood ?  I guess Robins weren’t invented yet.  If they were there they must have been in the trees and hadn’t learned to sing yet.

Introducing the core routines of nature connection encourage new brain patterns, allowing nature to come into existence for me.  Literally.  I think you could say if I don’t perceive robins, and if I don’t believe they are there, and my behaviors reinforce that, then essentially they’re not.  What if I were a politician or  environmental regulator ?  What kind of decisions would I make on behalf of the robin /  nature, that basically didn’t exist for me ?

Here is some brain research that shows how all this can play out.

After this talk people went outside with nature connection mentors.  They had one rule: do not teach a thing.  No information.  The only plan they had was to be curious, ask questions and to listen, using the core routines as the vehicle for making connections with nature, bringing it into existence.

Some great things happened outside. Unexpected things.  One group discovered animal hair.  Long hairs and short ones.  The long ones were banded, light / dark, light / dark.  I asked “Did you bend the hairs to see what would happen?” She said, “No, I didn’t”.  “Was it straight or wavy ?”, I asked.  “Shoot, I don’t remember.  I…I…didn’t look”.

From there that group discovered a large kill site with “a hair pile the size of a pizza”.  But what really grabbed my attention, in a gross kind of way, is that they found a scat from the predator…with a whole paw in it. A skeleton hand !  When it comes to creating brain patterns, that’s down right fascinating.

The other group was just coming back from a sit spot and was given the errand to find a track.  Possibly a tree pattern, something in the landscape, water gulley, animal track, anything that can be considered a track. Someone in the group while exploring, saw a cottontail.  The group leader crow called people together and asked for the story of the day.  “Where did you see the rabbit ?” he said.  “Right over there” they said.  Everyone intently looked at each other with the silent question and a raised eyebrow, ‘should we go follow it ?’.  As they approached the place where the cottontail was last seen, in it’s place was a chocolate brown sleek animal, the size of a small house cat.  It bounded, hunted, stopped and looked on it’s hind legs. It bounded again.  They watched this alert and wily predator for at least 10 minutes. (Brain Research on people as natural explorers)

Can you guess the species ?  What are the possibilities ?  What is the possibility list of mammals of southern Ontario ?

That night we drove into Toronto to present at the University of Toronto.