We had lots of stimulating discussion and got creative around the topics of nature, animals, seasons of our lives, music and walking around the world!
During Robin D's Singalong and Songwriting class, we discussed resilience in nature and animals.
Robin showed us around her family’s cottage on Kahshe Lake where we saw resilient nature in many forms:
Daises at the water’s edge
Douglas Fir
Birch trees
Dragonflies
Insects
Hummingbirds
Minnows
Caterpillars
Baby snapping turtles
A mother loon with her babies on her back
Beavers
Robin’s Crocs!!
Can you spot the beaver, ducklings and mourning dove fledglings below?
SPRING (our 20s)
- when everything (including us) starts to grow
- invincible and brave
- a student
- owned the world, checking it out, a part of everything that was going on.
- superman, nobody could touch me
- taking charge of my life
- getting to know myself
SUMMER (our 30s-40s)
- had a job, went on lots of dates, traveled the world, got married and had 2 kids
- took charge
- had the beginning of a family
- open opportunities
AUTUMN (our 50s-60s)
- starting to turn grey - wiser
- everybody goes crazy and goes in their own direction
- a good life
- it was a lot of work, all the leaves and bundling the kids up.
WINTER (70s-80s) - stay curious
- “don’t bring snow inside”
- life is slow - that’s the same as peaceful
We art-directed Jenn in creating a beautiful light grey, white & purple painting with birds in the sky while Robin D sketched a lighthouse with a loon and purple clouds.
In Steve's Music History & Piano Concert class we explored musical Instruments from around the world:
Meditation Chimes from Tibet
Meditation Bowl from China
Sitar from India
Ceramic Whistle - Cuba
Here is a strange instrument that would be difficult to play and hard on the back muscles!
We looked at a video Steve made about musicians from around the world. Watch it here.
Steve shared a video by Toronto based group called Glass Orchestra
and we reminisced about doing this kind of thing as children.
We talked about what was the first discovered instrument and someone said ‘drums’.
The human voice was also suggested and we used our "voice instruments" to make primitive sounds.
At the end of class we explored meditation and different ways we might do that (e.g., holding hands together with focus on breath).
In Kathleen's Creative Flow class, we discussed wonderful walks around the w Kathleen showed images of interesting places to walk in the world and asked people to guess where each place might be: Cotswolds (England), Mount Everest (viral photo of traffic jam at the peak in 2019), Amazon jungle canopy walk (Peru).
The Cotswolds: the area is made up of a bedrock of limestone and “cotswolds” means “sheep enclosure in the rolling hillside”
We talked about the popularity of climbing Everest, the challenges and dangers, acclimatizing to the atmospheric change
We shared ideas of what moves people to undertake such climbs:
“Determination”
“Foolhardyness”
“Energy”
“Money”
“Stupidity”
“High risk tolerance, adventure spirit”
“Courage”
Katia drew while the participants shared their walking stories around in various places around the world to create this beautiful collective collage of our travel adventures!
A memory was shared of climbing the Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa, with a group of school age children and a guitar to sing songs along the way.
We discussed the canopy of the Amazon jungle in Peru. The thrill, or fear for some, of walking at the height of the trees. A travel memory was shared and an explanation of zip-lining “ you could even slide like a star, attached to a harness, from tree to tree.”
More shared stories of walking in Watkins Glen (NY State Park) and then up Mount Rigi (Switzerland) and even across the Danube River crossing the divide of Eastern and Western Europe.. walking between countries and worlds.
Kathleen shared her journey along the El Camino Trail (with pictures). Everyone was with her the whole way.
We learned the ancient history of this 800km trail being a pilgrimage with many paths through the areas of Spain and France all leading to Santiago
The scallop shell is the symbol of the “El Camino” and helps guide the way.
Kathleen talked about staying in many different villages, meeting friends from around the world and one special day of searching for and finding magic..!
At the end of the class, some last walking memories were shared:
learning the joy of walking as part of working on a farm,
walking in the fog of the Great Smoky Mountains,
exploring part of the Great Wall of China
Let's create together next week - we've got some interesting and engaging classes for you! Book your classes here.
Also, mark your calendars - Kristin and Simon will be presenting The Bitove Method on Zoomer Radio next Sat July 3 at 1pm ET! You can listen on the radio (AM 740) or you can listen here by clicking "Listen Now" on the left hand side of the home page.
