Toddlers At The Saturday Farmers' Market

I’ve spent time down at the Capitol Square on summer mornings this year. The square is long the home to the famous Farmers’ Market.  There is, also, a troop of organizations who have information tables across the sidewalk from these local farmers. They attempt to pass along their various messages to the crowd.  In our case, it’s the climate change action agendas of 350.org.   Science, politics, petitions. 

Admittedly, these tables are sometimes just wallpaper for the counter-clockwise conveyor belt of market goers. Folks are, after all, on the mission of vegetables and honey and pasteries.  A glance and a smile our way is the norm.  So I get the chance to really watch people as they slowly stream by.  It occurred to me on my recent visit that one demographic really stood out in this crowd...toddlers.

Two-year-olds and three-year-olds. On market morning in Madison there are probably more toddlers in one place than any other in the city at any time of year.  Young families obviously take advantage of this wonderful weekend morning event. (They’re up...they might as well be out...)

Toddlers on Dads’ shoulders.  Toddlers under one arm.  Toddlers walking independently behind parents.  Toddlers falling in Capitol Square flower beds.  And, it’s stroller mania.  Strollers and double strollers.  Sibs in strollers.  Strollers full of market produce being pushed by toddlers and Mom.

I realized it was not incongruous that my business on the Square on those Saturdays was related to these toddlers.  Though I had a smile all morning watching the kids, I was also so very aware of a poignancy:  Me, trying to convey a message of a wounded Earth and a future of mind-boggling questions.   Me, hoping that these parents have pathways in mind that will infuse a resiliency into that generation.

NASA scientist James Hansen has long been the leading public voice on climate disturbances and their cultural reprecussions. But his voice has added a very personal tone in past years as his two grandchildren were born.  Along with his science, Hansen is focused on how the younger generation today will be handed failing systems and harsh climates that might have been forstalled by an earlier generation.  His recent book on climate change issues is titled Storms Of My Grandchildren.  He would agree that parents of toddlers today need to be, themselves, active agents for a resilient society as well as the nurturers of their children.

What is the Essence of Preparation for Children?

What is the essence of preparation for adulthood, coupled with the preparation for a changing society? I mean, what is the resilience factor that kids need to acquire to be productive and confident in 2020? It's an ethics question as well as an imperative practical standard for education. 

Dianne Monroe

Dianne Monroe has extensive experience with children who are facing struggles in life on a family level. She wonders how this type of life challenge can be applied to the resilience needed by our current crop of kids who will face struggles in life on a societal level. 


This is the core of where we need to be focused.


Carolyn Baker is a psychotherapist and counselor dedicated to preparing and assisting folks for our future. Dianne Monroe wrote the following on Carolyn's blog.

Read the original "To Touch a Changing Sky: Raising Children in Changing Times", or the transcript here.

We have received a tremendous gift – to be alive at the edge of these changing times. It’s not an easy gift, if we look open-eyed into possible futures. Yet within this gift lies the tremendous opportunity (and yes, responsibility) of crafting tools to place in the hands of those who come after, to enable them to shape the world in which they live through their own vision.

If you have children in your lives – as parents, grandparents, educators or in any other way – there’s a particular magnitude to this. You have no doubt asked yourself what you can do to enable them to navigate the turbulent times ahead, to build meaningful lives in the midst of crisis and decline, to greet the future with creativity, resilience and joy.

“How can we nurture and raise children so they can grow into adults who are able to survive, thrive and contribute to new ways of being with the Earth and each other? ” This is how I pose this question to myself as I look into the hopeful eyes of the children whose lives I have the opportunity to touch through my work. It is perhaps this sense of contributing to new ways of being with the Earth and each other that will make it possible for the youth of today to survive and thrive in a challenging and rapidly changing world.

Carolyn Baker writes in Navigating the Coming Chaos about the upcoming collapse (Great Turning, Great Unraveling, Transition, or by any other name) as “humanity’s next rite of passage, our imminent initiation into adulthood as a species.” In Sacred Demise, she writes of an “odyssey” that “is about the transformation of human consciousness and the emergence of a new paradigm as a result of discovering our purpose in the collapse process and thereby coming home to our ultimate place in the universe.”

Bill Plotkin, in Nature and the Human Soul, writes that, “we must mature into people who are, first and foremost, citizens of Earth and residents of the universe, and our identity and core values must be recast accordingly. This kind of maturation entails a quantum leap beyond the stage of development in which the majority of people live today. And yet we must begin now to engender the future human.”

So how do we prepare our children to take their place in this multi-generational species initiation, to find their way to joyful, meaningful lives in the midst of crisis and difficulties we can only imagine? How can we cultivate the growth of interior structures that can enable the youth of today, the adults of tomorrow, to make their contribution to a transformation perhaps as huge as re-visioning what it means to be human?

This wide-vision of humanity’s future, not turning away from the difficulties and hardships, yet recognizing the potentials that grow within this crisis, has everything to do with an approach I have developed through my work with youth, that I now share with you.

Tools for Shaping Their Future

For over 20 years, part of my work has been with children in difficult circumstances (children in Child Protective Services care, children who have experienced abuse, immigrant and refugee youth and others). Daily I asked myself what I could give them that would really last, that they could hold on to and use as they charted their uncertain futures.

As I considered the future of all children and the juncture we are headed into, I realized that the things I developed for children in difficult circumstances were exactly what all youth needed to find their own way through the difficult times people and our planet are facing, to help shape a new and different future.

 I saw that the ways I developed to build internal structures with children who life had dealt a difficult hand also builds those internal structures with all children facing challenging situations. This nurturing of interior structures is perhaps the most important gift we can offer youth today, to enable them to play their full role in these times of human initiation and transformation.

 My approach revolves around four qualities and strengths adults can cultivate with the children in their lives, and a wide variety of practices, activities and experiences that can nurture them. They can be brought into a broad range of situations, are adaptable for youth of any age, and can be shaped to fit differing interests and inclinations.

These four qualities and strengths are:

Inner Self

For youth to survive, thrive and make their contribution to this time of transformation, it is essential that they that they learn to know, value, and trust their inner voice, that they become deeply rooted in a sense of self. Beyond this, it is crucial for children (and adults) to understand that they have gifts to bring to this world, something valuable to offer to the times in which they live. I tell children that this is true even if they do not yet know what it is because they are still growing, and it is yet to be discovered – and that discovery can be as joyful as unwrapping a birthday present. This sense of purpose, the soil from which their life’s meaning will take root and flower, is one of the most valuable things we can offer those who are youth today.

Creativity and Imagination

“A healthy imagination is essential to growing up, becoming fully human, encountering our souls, and offering our unique and necessary gifts to the world,” writes Bill Plotkin in Nature and the Human Soul.

Creativity and Imagination are an integral part of what it means to be human, a vital resource we each carry within. By nurturing these qualities with the children in our lives we offer them ways of knowing and growing their inner selves, finding personal meaning and enjoyment in life, and as a way of seeking solutions to, or ways of being with, life’s challenges and difficulties. Through cultivating creativity and imagination, we offer children resources for growing into and through the coming times, and for making their contribution to re-visioning humanity’s future.

Connection with Nature

We are part of the natural world and evolved within its embrace. This understanding is perhaps as ancient as humanity itself. Giving children the gift of knowing nature as their home, feeling themselves as part of the web of life is an invaluable life resource for exploring their inner self and developing their ability to act in this world and on its behalf.

It is perhaps our culture’s break with nature, the viewing of our planet as nothing more than a collection of things to be exploited and discarded, that has brought us to this time of crisis. And perhaps more than anything else, this time of turmoil and transformation calls for a rediscovery of humanity’s place within the earth community. This re-visioning of our relationship with life on earth, rooted in indigenous wisdom and shaped for contemporary times, is perhaps the cornerstone of the human initiation and evolution being called for today.

For youth to discover their place within the natural world, to grow their connection with it, has everything to do with their ability to remain grounded in turbulent times, everything to do with them being able to grow their vision and play their part in this upcoming transition.

Joy, Gratitude, Wonder

We live in a magnificent world. Children express joy and wonder naturally and beautifully. It can be a delightful experience for adults to help children cultivate and deepen this natural way of being with the world. Knowing what brings you joy strengthens sense of self and connection with the world. The ability to find joy, gratitude and wonder in difficult circumstances, in places where it may not be obvious or easy to see can make a big difference in how people experience and respond to times of crisis and change. This capacity is a vital part of finding and making meaning in life, in the fundamental redefining of “a good life” that our times are calling for.

A Note About Resilience

It almost goes without saying that children (and adults) need resilience to meet the future. Resilience is a complex interweaving of many qualities. Core resilience is rooted in two things, the ability to be grounded in self and the ability to respond creatively and flexibly to change. This is fundamentally the same as the qualities of Inner Self, Creativity, and Imagination. By nurturing these qualities you are actually growing resilience.

Knowing one’s place as part of the natural world, feeling this connection, brings a groundedness and flexibility in times of challenge and change. The capacity for joy, gratitude and wonder offers a source connection and replenishment, especially valuable in difficult times. Perhaps the most powerful component of resilience is the deeply rooted knowing that you have something valuable to bring and a part to play in the unfolding drama of these times, an opportunity to touch and shape the unfolding of the future, and something important to pass on to those who come after.

Through Their Own Vision

There are countless activities, practices and experiences that can nurture these qualities and strengths. Many I have developed during my years of working with youth. Many have been developed by others. Many more will undoubtedly be developed in the future. There may be ways you are already nurturing some, or all, of these qualities and strengths with the children in your lives.

Here are a pair of simple yet powerful practices you can easily share with the children in your lives. Notice how they reinforce each other, and how they each nurture several of these four qualities and strengths.

Wandering

Wandering is spending unstructured time in nature, with no plan or agenda, following what draws one’s attention. This common childhood experience not so long ago has become a rarity in today’s urban and suburban environments.

Wandering offers children the gift of falling in love with the world. It builds a connection with nature, opening children (and adults) to feeling themselves as part of the web of life and knowing nature as their home. It also develops the relationship between nature and inner self, cultivates intuition and deepens trust in one’s inner voice.

Adults can create opportunities for children to wander in nature. We can support them in deepening their experience by asking them questions about their adventures and the things they are drawn to. For example: Tell me about what makes that rock (or flower or lizard or weed) special to you? How do you think it feels to be a bird (or the wind, or a caterpillar)? If the tree could talk with the stream what do you think they would say? Children can be encouraged to keep a journal where they write or draw about their experiences, their feelings and responses to the things they encounter.

Freeplay and Free Art – Imagination Running Wild

Just as adults can make space for and encourage external wandering, it is vital that we open space for and encourage exploring internal landscapes. Free play and daydreaming are natural childhood activities that, like wandering, are increasingly rare in today’s overscheduled lives. They foster the development of interior structures and grow the capacity for vision.

Free art is the natural companion to free play. This innate flowing of experiences, feelings, imagination through any art form is very different from “how to” art lessons. Adults can encourage youth to draw, paint, sculpt (with clay, mud or any other substance) sing, dance, write, tell a story about their imaginary experiences. We can ask to be invited into children’s imaginary world and pose questions to extend and deepen their experiences, taking care not to direct or impose. We can also ask questions that encourage the use of imagination. For example: How many things could this stick be? (Hints: a magic wand, an antenna, an insect, Pinocchio’s nose.) Children can be encouraged to use journals or folders to gather their free art, and to return to these creations for further exploration and elaboration.

Through free play, daydreaming and free art, children explore and expand their understanding of their inner selves and discover their unique relationship with the world around them. These activities offer a safe structure for them to explore their emotions, including their fears, and to seek solutions for imaginary-world problems that can carry over into “real world” problem-solving skills. Most importantly, they cultivate the capacity for vision – that necessary quality for discovering and sharing one’s gifts, for finding their place and making their contributions to the future world in which they will live.

Writing Our Horizon

We are entering, perhaps have already entered, a new paradigm, an unknown that has not existed on this scale since perhaps the dawn of what we call civilization. And with this, a possibly unprecedented opportunity to reach out and touch the future. We can see the outline dimly on the horizon, yet the flow of history always evolves a bit differently from what anyone envisioned.

We live at a conjuncture when seemingly small actions can reverberate through time, like widening circles around a pebble tossed into a still pond. The story of this time has not yet been written. Daily, in ways large and small, we are writing the opening lines of that story. Perhaps our most important work will be the developing and passing on of writing tools for these times. The tools, gifts, resources we offer the next generation, the children in our lives today, will ripple outward throughout the length of this journey.

~ ~ ~
Readin', writin' & 'rithmetic have become such an overwhelming staple of daily classwork, and rightly so.  BUT, imbedded within these disciplines (along with their poor cousins science and social studies) is the task of slowly strengthening in children an enthusiastic confidence for openness and problem solving.

Do You Scratch and Claw to Stay Tuned to the World?

Busy lives. The world turns. Staying up to date on a daily basis is a chore, even with the newly anointed Scott Pelley on CBS. A full dose of Wolf still takes some screen time.


Are we really, though, getting the stories that matter to the future of 4th graders?? 


We are sort of on the cusp of seeing mainstream media reporting on uncomfortable issues of our future - beyond the economy. (Choose an economy; how about Greece...) In general, the themes of water, peak oil, climate change, cultural conflicts (read wars) and the needs of citizens in coming decades are neglected miserably.

Many blogsites compile pertinent daily articles and send them out as a bundle to subscribers. (Sometimes there is a small subscription fee.) Articles are culled from many sources and cover everything from breaking news to opinion. 


Such as:
Speaking Truth to Power Daily News Digest from Carolyn Baker
Common Dreams
Energy Bulletin


Here are some examples of articles brought to light on subscription bundles in only the past two weeks or so (of many more!). Take a glance at the variety of content, which is generally neglected in reports from other media. I have highlighted key words. Scan the variety of articles. Get a feel for how this may impact your own perceptions.


6/3/11 Wangari Maathai: Spiritual Environmentalism—Healing Ourselves by Replenishing the Earth
6/13/11 Oil company's lawsuit against Greenpeace backfires
6/2/11 Why Our Most Urgent Climate Struggles May Be Winnable by Bill McKibben
6/1/11 Population Footprints: Rights and Responsibilities — Behind the Numbers: The PRB blog on population, health, and the environment
6/1/11 Chris Hedges: The Sky Really Is Falling - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig
6/15/11 Lawn Care Goes to the Sheep in a Pennsylvania School District - Planet Green
5/29/11 The Reality of Global Climate Change is Upon Us - Newsweek
6/3/11 Shortages of Fresh Water Seen as Emerging Threat - ABC News
6/13/11 USGS: Global Warming Drives Rockies Snowpack Loss Unrivaled in 800 Years, Threatens Western Water Supply
6/16/11 Summer Reading Suggestions | Center for Ecoliteracy
6/14/11 The Truth About The Economy In 2 Minutes | MoveOn.Org
6/16/11 Small farms may be better for food security and biodiversity | Science Matters | David Suzuki Foundation
5/2/11 In U.S., Optimism About Future for Youth Reaches All-Time Low
6/17/11 Humane Connection: 7 Resources for Finding Out About the Secret Lives of Your Stuff
6/14/11 Children Pay Ultimate Price of Iraq's Poisonous Wartime Legacy | Common Dreams
6/5/11 Josh Golin: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Commerce... and Other Scholastic Satires
6/1/11 The New Geopolitics of Food - By Lester R. Brown | Foreign Policy
6/10/11 Humanitarian crisis as world's largest refugee camp declared full | World news | guardian.co.uk
6/1/11 An End to Growth: The Environment’s Impact on our Economic Decline | Oil Price.com
2/16/11 Two seminal Nature papers join growing body of evidence that human emissions fuel extreme weather, flooding that harm humans and the environment | ThinkProgress
6/7/11 BBC News - Tropical forests 'better managed'
6/17/11 Will Alternative Energy Save Us From Peak Oil | Oil Price.com
6/13/11 Oil-giant Venezuela tries to limit energy use - Yahoo! News
6/3/11 Video: 15 Years of Saying YES!
5/26/11 The geology of the planet: Welcome to the Anthropocene | The Economist
6/15/11 Ten Charts That Embody Everything That's Wrong With The U.S. Economy
6/12/11 Field Notes from the Future- Children and Nature.Org
6/1/11 The Oil Drum | Oil prices and recession
6/7/11 Yemen Facing Humanitarian Catastrophe: UNICEF | Common Dreams
6/1/11 In The World After Abundance | Energy Bulletin
6/15/11 Sewing and Clothing Repair | Preparedness Advice Blog
6/16/11 Nebraska Nuclear Reactor Flooded

We do sifting and winnowing in class each day. I hope this creates resources for sifting the challenges of resilience to come.

Wallpaper and Your Backyard

Unfortunately, a side effect of the "No Child Left Inside" movement is a growing fatigue of the commandment to get kids into the woods. This call for accessing nature has sometimes become the primary concern- into the woods, the parks, the ponds, the wetlands, the deserts, the beaches.


Are we inadvertently delineating Nature as "out there?" Do we designate natural spots in town so often that children infer Nature to be defined by a parcel of land? Must it be a reserved or preserved plot with undeveloped status (or as quasi-natural as we can get it)?  


Don't get me wrong, our conserved lands are learning labs of high value and need to be visited and studied. Let's not forget, however, that the natural world surrounds children all the time, and they need to identify this. This natural world is grossly disguised with blacktop and concrete or totally shut out via bricks and glass. Cultural shrouding has, all too often, wall-papered nature out. Even so, children need to be able to identify their surroundings as such: Nature that is always there, but sometimes culturally impeded.  


So, there is the common mindset that one's neighborhood and even backyard don't qualify as a strand of Nature. Sure, there are squirrels and buckthorn and waskely wabbits that eat Mom's hasta shoots. But that's still not legit. "It's just the backyard." Not necessarily Nature. 


Case in point: I have a small backyard with a few trees. As a somewhat seasoned birder, I've kept notes and tallies of bird sightings from many spots in North America. Guess where I finally settled in to watch the feathered ones. My backyard. Instead of gallivanting all over the state at 5:00 AM on spring mornings, I settled into an Adirondack chair behind the house with the binocs. Surprise... The little chirpers are there!  Many folks keep "yard records" and I now know why. It's not necessary to go "out" in search of nature.


Here's the list of sightings from the yard so far this calendar year - through May 13th.  (Technically my yard extends vertically in altitude to, say, 2,000 feet.)


Canada Goose
Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Peregrine Falcon (2 flyovers!)
Sandhill Crane

Cedar Waxwing

Ring-Billed Gull
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Chimney Swift
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-Capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-Breasted Nuthatch
Red-Breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
Ruby-Throated Hummingbird
Veery
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Cedar Waxwing (flock of 12)
Yellow-Rumped Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Chestnut-Sided Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Chipping Sparrow
White-Throated Sparrow
Dark-Eyed Junco
Brown-Headed Cowbird
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
Great-Crested Flycatcher


Thirty-nine species that will either stick around for the summer or migrate through to northern climes. And migration hasn't ended, by any means. I am thrilled with the anticipation and sightings all around me. Out the back door. I don't need to spend gasoline carbon by going off to "hotspots" around the state. This is a relatively new awakening.


We cannot neglect conserved land of any sort and must work to preserve every acre from developers. But, we must be mindful of every little bit of our natural environment, and challenge kids to do the same. (Check out a bird tracking program each winter from Cornell called FeederWatch.) What's in your backyard? What's in your friend's backyard? When is the tent going up in the backyard? Are we going on a snipe hunt in the backyard?


Further


We have also witnessed over the decades the housing development manifest destiny syndrome. We've named streets Deerpath Rd. and Hawk Crossing and Fox Run which, ultimately, becomes the death knell for said organism mentioned. If said organism, plus its coyote and turkey friends, happen to show up in said suburban setting we shoot and trap and fear until their sovereign territories are swallowed up. Is it any wonder neighborhoods are not considered a part of nature?




Walking a sidewalk to school or waiting at the bus stop is part of this backyard nature jurisdiction for kids. When slinging the backpack down "Badger Lane," there are multitudes of growing things to be observed throughout the seasons. (Phenology does creep into and between yards.) Kids need to get out of bed and out of the house without a rush, which can be accomplished. :-) With a slower, less crazed walk to the bus, they can take in natural surroundings that peek out through man-made structures: Sky, temperature, blooms, worms on the sidewalk, depth of snow, leaf piles, a new sound.


Otherwise, it's only wallpaper.

Pakistan Suffers Climate Warming Fallout

The slow southward flooding of Pakistan over the past four weeks in August is considered to be a an event sparked by climate change factors.

The Tibetan Plateau is sometimes referred to as the Third Pole because of it's snow and ice concentrations. The 46,000 glaciers among the surrounding systems of mountains are, collectively, equal to the third largest ice mass on the planet. (1)  The future state of resilience of this fresh water bank will affect dramatically the billions of people who live down-rivers in all directions. 

Regional political extent of the "Third Pole"

Unfortunately, the snow packs of the Tibetan Plateau have, of late, been receding at the rate of 7% per year. Side effects include desertification and release of gases as permafrost melts. The melting glaciers have created many large high-elevation lakes which may breach their banks in the future and create massive flooding. 

As snow and ice diminish, less melt water will mean a restricted summer flow into all the Asian rivers fed by the Plateau. Without this seasonal assist to the rivers, drinking and irrigating water will decline during typical dry seasons. Effects on mid to lower sections of the rivers will be disastrous in years to come.

Watersheds draining the Tibetan Plateau region

Why more flooding now? 

The Plateau's ice has shrunk and the resultant drier region warms more and invites more moist oceanic air flow during the monsoons. Hence, much more rain and flooding. Over the past month, the flooding has slowly filled watersheds downstream on the Indus River to extremes in Pakistan. It has displaced millions of people, killing thousands and ruining an incredible amount of agricultural land. As of today the flood surge has begun to release itself from the Indus River into the Arabian Sea. The water may be running its course, but the devastation remains. Just google the images.

Reprehensively, this national and regional event is not getting the media reporting nor the international relief response it is due. Have we simply had enough of international disasters for the year?

Please consider sending US dollars to UNICEF.  They will go directly to children and families, as always.  This is the easiest way to begin redistributing global wealth.


[BBC article on children 8/31]