Exploring the Human Landscape

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

Callings

Do you feel yourself being called

to places that are far away,

beckoned by landscapes

intimately known and unimaginable?

Does it feel as if only strangers

can speak your name?

You must leave home.

You must leave HOME!...

~ Jamie K. Reaser, excerpt

PRACTICE

• Find a time and place to sit quietly and undisturbed for at least a half-hour.  Bring a writing pen, colored art pens or crayons, and a journal for recording observations.
• Practice “Connecting with Nature” (posted January 8, 2013).
• Explore the following questions and activities: 
• If your body was a landscape, what kind of landscape would it be?  What are the characteristics of this landscape?  Draw a picture(s) of this human-landscape in your journal. 
• What kind of human activities are taking place in this landscape-of-your and what are the consequences?  How might you change any of these activities that are having harsh “environmental” impacts? 
• Write a poem, song, or story about these activities and their transformation. 
• Has a landscape ever called to your soul by frequenting your thoughts, travel plans, choice of living location, etc.?   If so, what are the characteristics of this landscape and how did you respond?  What response(s) would be appropriate at this time?

• Write a love letter to this landscape, being sure to thank it for all that it has nourished within you.

This practice was first published in "Courting the Wild: Love Affairs with the Land," edited by Jamie K. Reaser and Susan Chernak McElroy and published by Hiraeth Press (2008; www.hiraethpress.com). (c) Jamie K. Reaser. All rights reserved.

Callings was first published in "Note to Self: Poems for Changing the World from the Inside Out" (2011; www.hiraethpress.com). The complete poem can be found at: http://talkingwaters-poetry.blogspot.com/2010/05/callings.html