It is the season of bark and berries! As we walk on the land we may find the abundance of ripening mulberries and blueberries, but this gift of abundance often comes with its own kind of work. While winter is commonly associated with the challenge of scarcity in nature, the height of spring and early summer brings different challenges: long days, high energy, and opportunities that ask for our effort and attention. The land offers much during this season, and we are best able to meet these opportunities when we have taken time to rest and restore ourselves. Rest and work, dark and light; when we move together on the land with these high and low energies in mind, time and again we find what we seek.
This season also invites us to reflect on vulnerability. The sap is rising now, and the bark of trees can be harvested as a beautiful material for weaving and making. For bark harvest as in all foraging, we meet the trees as beings, using relationship, ecological knowledge, and deep listening to harvest in a good way. Bark protects the tree, and removing it reveals the sap-wet heartwood beneath. We often move through the world with protective layers of our own. These forms of protection serve an important purpose, yet there are moments when openness allows us to connect more deeply with ourselves, with others, and with the natural world.
Many of the most memorable experiences on the land happen when we enter that open state, or flow. Walking together on the land, we find this flow state through two main pathways: high and low energy activities. “Moon energy” activities could be opening a circle, slowing down, greeting the land, expressing gratitude, listening carefully to what is around us, sit spot, and art integration. “Sun energy” activities also bring the flow state. It emerges through movement, play, and full engagement of the body. When breath deepens, attention sharpens, and we become fully present in the moment.
Whether we are foraging on the land for edible and medicinal plants and fungi, or if we are seeking inner healing, connection, and belonging; the land often reveals what we seek when we arrive with curiosity, humility, and a willingness to be present. The forager’s eye develops as we begin to notice relationships, patterns, and opportunities that might otherwise remain hidden. The rewards of presence on the land are not always measured by what we bring home, but by how we learn to see, listen, and connect along the way.
This blog post was submitted by Chelsea and Stephanie, rock stars of the forest!