10/06/2024
On a personal note that could be powerful if you can make it to the end❤️
Imagine a weekend surrounded by like minded women, learning all things outdoors. 🏕️
Since 2017, I’ve been participating with
B.O.W. aka becoming an outdoor woman.
I’ve learned how to use a pressure cooker, ‘safely’ drive a tractor and a boat, cook over a fire with in a cast iron Dutch Oven all while on top of the mountains in WV.
In the beautiful State of Delaware for the second time now, I’ve learned to identify trees by their bark & leaves, how to shoot a bow, how to survive in the wilderness, how to build a fire to cook over and how to kayak.
These programs and more were chosen by me, for me! This weekend’s trip, the programs I chose were with you in mind. Something I could gift to you in the Unplugged Forest here at Mason Dixon Farm.
Now before I share with you what I chose, don’t laugh, let your mind wonder or stop reading. It’s long but you got this📖☺️
~ Nature Journaling📔✍🏻
Honestly, the diary has been replaced now of days with photos & words to post daily on a Social Media platform, hasn’t it?
Kelly, an incredible watercolor artist led this class of both novice & experienced participants. After only 5 minutes of flipping through her journals, I requested she come led a class in our Unplugged Forest with you!
We now live in a fast pace world.
Everyone needs a quick read and has little patience’s to get to the end ~ kudos to you if you’re still reading this👏
Who would have thought that holding someone’s journal in your hands that consisted of drawings, paintings and minimal words, would actually allow the viewer to become part of one’s special day that has long now past.
Just look at the drawings of her journal I captured on my phone and you will taste her Thanksgiving dinner with her family and actually find yourself helping her set up her camp site! You’ll then have a better understanding of this Journaling process I hope to have you experience 🌃
I am so excited about sharing this with you here. In hopes of leaving such treasures for the next generation to experience our past.
~Forest bathing🌲🛁
NO, we didn’t take our clothes off!
NO, this bath didn’t include any water or any of Mason Dixon Outfarm’s soap!
I won’t elaborate too much here for I want you to experience the feeling without judging whether or not you’d even enjoy such a weirdly named activity.
I will say this though, on a very personal level. It’s simply forest therapy that doesn’t involve your credit card or a couch.
One part of our journey with our beautiful leader Shelly was to take a few minutes and search through the forest trail for a gift from nature.
It wasn’t long before I found it, a single leaf that found its death recently.🍁🖕🏼
For you see my ‘joker’ husband Greg has taught all five of our children to give me the middle finger with each family photo. As the children turned to adults, they all got pretty creative with ‘where’s Waldo’ hiding their 🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼 inside the photo.🧑🧑🧒🧒😭
Finding this leaf made me instantly remember the non-material gift my husband gave me the first time he led me into the forest. The peace I recieved that day wasn’t at the bottom of a bottle or at the end of a cigarette. 🥃🚬
It was simply under my feet, in the breeze that touched my skin, in the warmth of sunshine that speckled my face, in the reality of how small I was next to a pine tree or in the conversions that were taking place around me, even though I didn’t speak any animal language.
So my true gift from nature in finding this leaf was to always remember that each day I am given an opportunity to inspire someone in a positive way. Plant a seed if you will. It’s then up to the receiver to water and nourish said gift. The end game, to gift it to someone else so it may live on.
Even 20 yrs later, Greg & I are the most connected when wonder into the forest together! 🌲☺️
One day I hope to share such gifts with you in person but for now I hope you enjoy all the other gifts I captured this weekend provided by nature herself 📸
~Shayne❤️
