Photo by Henry Domke
The CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm that I belong to, Common Ground Farm, publishes a monthly newsletter by and for its members. The following excerpt, by the farm’s educational director, struck me as relevant, and served as a reminder (again) that although Evidence-Based Design (EBD) is critical in this field, it’s important to balance the academic and the quantitative with individual, qualitative experiences that come straight from the heart:
This past weekend my son and I went for a walk on the Sierra Trail [near Beacon, New York]…He wanted to find animal bones and I was looking for inspiration for one of my upcoming children’s workshops on Animals in Winter. Neither of us went home disappointed. He found the skull of a small mammal next to a decayed tree stump…and I was able to spot pine cones, acorns, all sorts of berries and a magnificent array of mushrooms which will provide sustenance to the wildlife in the woods this winter. When we returned I realized we had found a few other things too: We were both calm, content, relaxed, tired and more joyful than we were when we left the house.
I should know by now that the hardest part of a hike is taking that first step out the front door.