Summer blends into Autumn
A new season is upon us. As summer blends into Autumn, and green blends into bolder, more beautiful colors, NatureWize is also redefining our own place in this cyclical journey. Our vision to connect more families to the wellness benefits of nature is sharper than ever. Throughout the summer families and youth returned to the forests, and the rivers, the orchards and farmlands, and went home laughing, toned, and enlivened [See our Summer Camp Photos here, and Family Explorer Photos here]. In our last event, we watched the children running about collecting the seed burrs on their socks, and picking up the fat, ripened seeds of the trees and grasses. What a wonderful lesson to see how the earth so cleverly spreads the pods of latent life! We at NatureWize would like to follow this natural strategy, to spread more seeds of joy and good health! So, if in this season you see a few changes (see our strategies below), we hope it provides a new freshness as a brisk walk in the forest in Autumn.
Strategy 1: Spread the Seeds of Joy and Good Health
How do we best spread the seeds of joy and good health? We at NatureWize have been running nature activities for families for three years now, reaching almost 100 different families to live more active, healthy lifestyles, while appreciating and protecting nature at the same time. We see the interest is growing, and what a wonderful thing! Imagine a world with more happier, healthier people interacting with more and more beautiful nature! However, NatureWize’s capacity (currently just two staff and a small Advisory Board) to reach more families is limited. So instead, we are going to start relying on you to spread those seeds.
Coming soon, we will have just what we need, too: Chinese Nature Clubs for Families Toolkit. This summer we worked to translate this document from the esteemed worldwide Children and Nature Network. We also developed additional resources to make this document a little more with “Chinese characteristics”, with photos and testimonials from none less than the NatureWize families as well as literature and other Chinese information resources and networking sites. With this toolkit, families and groups will no longer have to wait for the next NatureWize event as they can freely create their own activities whenever and wherever they want. We hope the tools provided will make it easier and give more confidence to families to share the joy and happiness they have experienced in nature. Watch for our announcement when the toolkit has been published!
Strategy 2: Bring Nature Back to the City and Closer to Home
Who says we have to drive anywhere to commune with nature? What are we doing to make our homes and neighborhoods more natural, more clean? It is sad we feel we have to drive away to get clean air, to get away from our own refuse. Why couldn’t we use some of that refuse to make compost for our plants that provide natural beauty, healthy food and clean air? Let us use less of things we do not need. Let us make more of the things we do need. A simple pot of herbs or vegetables placed in public can completely change an urban community’s landscape, and perspective.
This summer, NatureWize also launched a new project, Urban Farmer. Perhaps a better name would be “aspiring” urban “gardeners”, as we are indeed amateurs at planting vegetables, and our “farm” is really a bunch of pots clustered in our community’s courtyard garden. Learning how to plant organic vegetables in a city environment is the first component of the project. The second component is learning how to manage our home waste through a combination of composting (to be used later in the garden) and recycling, as well as simply making our own common household products like soap and paper out of natural materials. Essentially, this project re-sensitizes us to the daily products we use and discard every day, and the impact of this on our health and communities. Growing a garden brings beauty to our homes, and reconnects us to our most basic need for nutrition. Composting illuminates a new kind of wealth—of turning those wasted food scraps back into the nutrition for the plants that later feed us. We are in the City, but nature is still intimately a part of our lives! Sunny describes this in detail in her blog [link], so be sure to read more!
So, in this new season, we at NatureWize will begin to focus more on these strategies. We sincerely hope it revolutionizes how we spread those seeds of joy and happiness as we all share more of our nature outings with other friends and families, and bring nature back into our homes and neighborhoods.
Please stay tuned for updates about Urban Farmer workshops and related community markets {link to UF pages}, as well as the publication of the Nature Club for Families Toolkit - Chinese! We have an exciting season ahead.
A new season is upon us. As summer blends into Autumn, and green blends into bolder, more beautiful colors, NatureWize is also redefining our own place in this cyclical journey. Our vision to connect more families to the wellness benefits of nature is sharper than ever. Throughout the summer families and youth returned to the forests, and the rivers, the orchards and farmlands, and went home laughing, toned, and enlivened [See our Summer Camp Photos here, and Family Explorer Photos here]. In our last event, we watched the children running about collecting the seed burrs on their socks, and picking up the fat, ripened seeds of the trees and grasses. What a wonderful lesson to see how the earth so cleverly spreads the pods of latent life! We at NatureWize would like to follow this natural strategy, to spread more seeds of joy and good health! So, if in this season you see a few changes (see our strategies below), we hope it provides a new freshness as a brisk walk in the forest in Autumn.
Strategy 1: Spread the Seeds of Joy and Good Health
How do we best spread the seeds of joy and good health? We at NatureWize have been running nature activities for families for three years now, reaching almost 100 different families to live more active, healthy lifestyles, while appreciating and protecting nature at the same time. We see the interest is growing, and what a wonderful thing! Imagine a world with more happier, healthier people interacting with more and more beautiful nature! However, NatureWize’s capacity (currently just two staff and a small Advisory Board) to reach more families is limited. So instead, we are going to start relying on you to spread those seeds.
Coming soon, we will have just what we need, too: Chinese Nature Clubs for Families Toolkit. This summer we worked to translate this document from the esteemed worldwide Children and Nature Network. We also developed additional resources to make this document a little more with “Chinese characteristics”, with photos and testimonials from none less than the NatureWize families as well as literature and other Chinese information resources and networking sites. With this toolkit, families and groups will no longer have to wait for the next NatureWize event as they can freely create their own activities whenever and wherever they want. We hope the tools provided will make it easier and give more confidence to families to share the joy and happiness they have experienced in nature. Watch for our announcement when the toolkit has been published!
Strategy 2: Bring Nature Back to the City and Closer to Home
Who says we have to drive anywhere to commune with nature? What are we doing to make our homes and neighborhoods more natural, more clean? It is sad we feel we have to drive away to get clean air, to get away from our own refuse. Why couldn’t we use some of that refuse to make compost for our plants that provide natural beauty, healthy food and clean air? Let us use less of things we do not need. Let us make more of the things we do need. A simple pot of herbs or vegetables placed in public can completely change an urban community’s landscape, and perspective.
This summer, NatureWize also launched a new project, Urban Farmer. Perhaps a better name would be “aspiring” urban “gardeners”, as we are indeed amateurs at planting vegetables, and our “farm” is really a bunch of pots clustered in our community’s courtyard garden. Learning how to plant organic vegetables in a city environment is the first component of the project. The second component is learning how to manage our home waste through a combination of composting (to be used later in the garden) and recycling, as well as simply making our own common household products like soap and paper out of natural materials. Essentially, this project re-sensitizes us to the daily products we use and discard every day, and the impact of this on our health and communities. Growing a garden brings beauty to our homes, and reconnects us to our most basic need for nutrition. Composting illuminates a new kind of wealth—of turning those wasted food scraps back into the nutrition for the plants that later feed us. We are in the City, but nature is still intimately a part of our lives! Sunny describes this in detail in her blog [link], so be sure to read more!
So, in this new season, we at NatureWize will begin to focus more on these strategies. We sincerely hope it revolutionizes how we spread those seeds of joy and happiness as we all share more of our nature outings with other friends and families, and bring nature back into our homes and neighborhoods.
Please stay tuned for updates about Urban Farmer workshops and related community markets {link to UF pages}, as well as the publication of the Nature Club for Families Toolkit - Chinese! We have an exciting season ahead.
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