Nervous to Calm to Mosquitoes!

Day 8

The day began with my facilitation on our previous night readings, Caring for the Planet and The Land Ethic. I guess you can say I played to our class strength and we had a discussion mainly on manifestos. It was quite interesting and in the end we came up with our own class manifesto that incorporated everyone's beliefs.

Summer Institute Manifesto:

• Educational Approach/Mindset-integrate teaching with world views
• Want vs. Need
• Involved in community
• Just a citizen-responsibility and reaching
• Respect-bottom up effect
• Leading by example
• Checks & Balances
• Spirituality/Religious values
  

The next couple hours revolved around poetry. We all have a poet's voice inside of us and here is mine:

The Tree that had a House

She existed as one.
Standing firm against the strong winds from the west,
Contesting the shake from below the surface,
Thriving even if the year brought no solace,
Defying the dryness in the air.

She existed as one, but not alone.
A friend to us and a refuge for others,
Situated in the heart of a city,
With the feeling of detachment from the echo of I-10.

She existed as one.
As one with age shown in her side,
And the scars of childhood memories.
With a constant sticky reminder,
Like cotton candy on a hot day.

She existed as one.
Her house a platform of wood to the naked eye,
But in the eyes of her friends a whole new world,
A world where Rainbow Brite was nurtured,
And pirates were being thwarted from coming aboard.

She existed as one.
A love that was shared.
A place that was home.
A haven for all.
She was one.

The end of the day found us with the mosquitoes at our site. Laverne and Shirley were significantly smaller, even with the overnight rain! It will be interesting to see what Monday will bring us, if anything? We started mapping the perimeter of the vernal pool. It is a lot larger than I imagined. Oh and guess what? Our moose were back again!

Here is cool picture of fungus we found along the way: