Being :: In Touch

Being: Conscious, mortal existence; life.

Every month we welcome two families, two people, two voices to share their stories in whatever way they chose. We hope that you find joy in their daily lives, and their simple habit of just being.

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I realized early on that no “sensory activity” I designed was going to come anywhere near the sensory experience my kids have in nature. I read books about increasing sensory awareness, with added activities to go along. I developed elaborate play mats, obstacle courses and texture projects, only to have these efforts rejected… for various reasons.

Shaving cream is too slimy, while she is more than happy to have slugs and snails glide across her hands.

Paint feels too smooth in her hands for finger painting, but she is more than delighted to hold a fish, with its smooth sleek body as it wiggled through her fingers.

Activities with sandpaper are intolerable, while feeling the rough grippy feet of the June beetle as it crawled across her hand is exhilarating.

And so the story went with smell, taste, sound and sight. Time and time again I realized that my design was not match for what Mother Nature conjured up in her play box each and every day.

There are certainly still times when I introduce new activities in an effort to stretch sensory boundaries but I find little compares to the spontaneous experience and gentle way nature introduces us to ourselves.

We are fortunate to live in a place drenched in nature, but if one listens, looks, smells and sometimes tastes, you can find countless small ways nature infiltrates the senses. Hearing the sounds of wind rustling the leaves in the trees or birds chattering make our ears tune into other vibrations in our environment. The sight of clouds playing hide-and-seek with the sun, causing light to dance across the landscape, can be a visual delight. The smells of sage or dry pine on a hot sunny day, seaweed on shore after a storm, or mint growing in the garden all awaken the senses and sometimes send us back in time. That same mint pulled to the lips thrills our taste buds with its sweet cool flavor.

There are opportunities all around to awaken the senses with the natural world, sometimes all it takes is to stop and take notice of how it moves through us.

 

This month we welcome Dawn, from To the Outskirts, to the Being Series.  Dawn is a mama and homeschooler of two children, and often blogs about their adventures as California transplants adapting to life on the coast of Nova Scotia. We hope that you will join us here each Thursday for Dawn’s images and reflections. 

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Rhythm of the Home is an online magazine for families that focuses on creating with children, nature explorations, seasonal celebrations, conscious parenting, and mindfulness in all that we do.   To learn more about us, please visit us on Facebook,Pinterest, and Twitter.

We welcome new submissions for our upcoming seasons. To learn more about submitting, please visit our magazine.