Just before 2025's Summer Solstice we invite you bring your walking stick to theGROVE and put it to use as a both a Walking Stick and a Talking Stick.
The idea of this workshop is to approach the day's outdoor exploration/walk/hike without curriculum. The idea is to take our steps onto the path, not guided by our Teacher (purportedly me) but open to the Teachers we may find on our way. The idea is to arrive with water bottle, and no ideas save for where the journey begins. The other ideas will be found on our way.
"Does the Native American story of the hawk, which just came to mind when I spied that nest, suggest a way of moving though the understory for some a few minutes?"
"Does that lichen's pattern remind me of a breathing diagram from an old Tibetan painting which contains lessons on meditation? Well, yes it does! May as well practice it now in the underbrush."
On our way, the Teachers will be revealed. The lessons will become plain. We have but to open to them. And then engage with them. With our bodies, our minds, and whatever else fits into our backpack. We'll have a few Teachers of the naturalist variety and the Shamanistic variety along for the ride. There'll be plenty to prod you to find your Teacher.
We'll enter the forest path with sincere intentions set and our beings prepared and open to any opportunities crossing our path. There may be song, story. There may be poetry, art. There may be encounters with the sacred, there may be sublimely simple bodily expressions. Whether the lessons are healing, growing, or remembering we will commune in community with all that is earthly.
Led by Stephen Watson // Dàoist unteacher
Energetic Exchange // $18 for adults, $8 for children
LOCATION // theFOREST
PLEASE REGISTER IN ADVANCE
Your guide, Stephen Watson is a Dàoist unteacher. That's me! - I'm as a Dàoist is the unstuffy philosopher joyously interested in all the stuff...and all the nonstuff. The Dào is both the Way and Waymaking/Wayfinding. To live is to move, to move is to journey, and to journey is to make a path. Whether we see a path ahead or fail to hold to the path we propose for ourselves - we always make a path. Necessarily.
The Dàoist knows that the Way of path-going and path-making is what is important; not where we go but how we go. To find our (unmarked) Path along the (marked) path we will explore the natural possibilities to practice Poetry and process profound presence found on our way.
Qìgōng, Tai Chi, and meditation skills from a variety of the world's traditions are likely to be encountered. We may breathe into our bones and lift stones. We may listen to our cells and rearrange seashells. We may clamber and kick, we may expand our worldview by squinting at a chrysalis. We may shape song into Art and part pine boughs to reveal Poetry. We may express and experience healing methods from still-present Ancestors. There are many games and exercises in the woods. A Shaman is open to them. Such games teach of the Dào, the Yīn and Yáng of everything.
Let's blaze the path of engagement with all we are connected to. On our walk it may be a bit of lichen, a patch of mud, or a strange, insightful story. Remain engaged and the How will come to you through Play. Remain engaged and the Why will dance with the Why Not.
"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better."
-Albert Einstein