Even in a metropolitan region of over a million people, Nature is visible. Nature immerses humans in ways that we can take-for-granted. Several years ago, I stepped out of the house and was greeted by the Moon in an early morning sky and the morning star was just above it. It is not a great picture, but reminded me of the rewards when I open my eyes, heart, and mind. Miracles exist; I only have to be open to them.
Nature awaiting
Quietly revealing self
Opening whole self.
As well, we are fortunate to have a large river, the North Saskatchewan, running through the heart of Edmonton. Its Cree name is kisiskâciwanisîpiy meaning swift current and its Blackfoot name is omaka-ty meaning big river. I took this picture during one of many walks in the valley, looking into the centre of the city. I presents a contrast between what we think of as progress and how Nature still exists within our understanding of this progress.
Seeing what one wants,
Hearing what one chooses,
Opening one’s whole self.
Beholding Nature’s gifts,
Holding close,
Hiding, only if one chooses.
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About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope and its anticipatory relationship with the future, and hope as an essential element in learning.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
I liked that last line: ” Hiding, only if one chooses.”
With this virus going on, so many people are staying locked up inside and that’s just not me. I have to be out and about being in touch with the world. Not necessarily people, but the beauties that the world contains.
I agree Bev. As a life-long introvert, I enjoy being out and about. The thinner crowds have not been an issue for me. I also carry a hockey stick with me and am thinking of a T-Shirt saying “if I can touch you with this, we are too close.”
Funny! It brings to mind a tee my son had as a teenager. It said, “When you’re around, I just want to be lonesome.”
I think a lot of times what we see with our naked eyes captures much more beauty and the essence of nature than what the camera can ever attempt to hold.
Shruba, your comment reminds me of the Marcel Proust quote: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes.” Seeing and living the world anew is an essential human quality.
Yes, indeed. Also, if we are Nature-inclined, we will find it wherever we go.
We do for sure. Take care Cynthia