In the past few classes we have looked at ecological literacy and what it means to be eco-literate. Looking through the few article we were given in class, I decided to create notes from what I read that would fit into my creative journal. Below is one of the entries from my creative journal.

These reading taught me a few things about being eco-literate. When we discussed them in class I was able to remember key points from the reading easier because the creative journal process is very beneficial for me. Two main ideas stick out from these reading to me. First of all way the idea that more is not always better. This idea made me reflect on the way I view the world. In everyday life, we always want more money, clothes, toys, attention, and especially time. But sometimes more is not always better. If we look at the idea that money, power and attention can go to our heads and cause us to act irrationally, this is a case where more is not always red. We want to believe that the more we have the better off we are. As we take more from nature, we impact and affect it. Living on this earth, we must remember that the world around us sustains us and it has sustained different forms of life before us.

The second idea that stuck with me is that of system thinking. The idea that we are connected to many different people, and parts in a variety of ways, helps me understand the world around us. Last week we went out and practiced stillness. During this time, I was standing beside a tree that is shown below.

      

I wanted to share these images as they compliment the latter of my blog post. The pictures that I took inspired me to create a journal entry about my connection to the tree. Standing out in the snow on a calm winter day, I examined the bark and the branches of the tree. I noticed that many of the lower branches had been cut off. I couldn’t stop thinking about what it would be like to have someone look at you and just decide “I don’t like the way this looks, feels, acts; so I am going to cut it off.” My journal entry pictured below is a snapshot of how I would feel if I was a tree.

I mean, if that tree was a human and someone decided to cut off its limbs, we would call that assault or an attack. We are all a part of nature which is why this experience made me think about what it would be like to be treated like a tree with human standards.

Until next time!