Currently browsing Connect with Nature

It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility. Rachel Carson

13 great reasons to start a nature journal

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It’s “Connect with Nature” Week at Heartspoken.com. The fourth week of each month this year will focus on ways to strengthen your connection with nature and the natural world around you. Whether you live in the country or in a high rise apartment, there are ways to become more aware and more connected to your [...]

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Struggling with your life’s purpose? Read this book.

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BOOK REVIEW Finding Your Way in a Wild New World: Reclaiming Your True Nature  by Martha Beck New Release December 27, 2011 “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear” is a truth that will manifest itself over and over as this exciting new book is read and shared and read again.  The number [...]

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From Papyrus to Paper…a Journey Through History

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Part of the joy of writing personal notes is the enticing array of beautiful handmade papers available from artists and stationers. In my writing, I’ve explored connection from lots of angles, but a recent online acquaintance has helped me connect with the earliest history of paper. I “met” John Gaudet on Google+. I happened to [...]

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September’s Gold in the Shenandoah Valley

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Guest post by Julie Burner Gochenour, published originally in the August/September 1998 issue of Shenandoah Seasons: A Country Kitchen Journal (out of print).  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * There’s goldenrod on my morning walks now, along with the Queen Anne’s lace and sky blue chicory that’s peppered the road banks all summer, [...]

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Bird and Landscape Notecards from Jackie Catterton

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Connections with Nature…Connections with Others I am constantly thrilled and fascinated that even connections are connected! Jackie Catterton’s charming notecards bring the natural beauty of the Shenandoah Valley straight to your writing desk. These images never fail to brighten my mood and whisk me outdoors in my mind. I love sharing them by writing personal [...]

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Experience Jackie Catterton’s watercolors in person…

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Jackie’s Personal Appearances & Art Displays My friend Jackie Catterton (who is also a Heartspoken Connection Messenger, because her art connects us with Nature and with God’s creation) will be displaying her beautiful watercolors and notecards at several upcoming events in the Shenandoah Valley and northern Virginia, and I’m posting her schedule below. New pricing in [...]

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Find Yourself When You Remove the Clutter

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“Is what you’re holding onto holding you back?” Introducing Connection Messenger Debbie Bowie, Certified Professional Organizer® It was my remarkable good fortune, while attending my 40th college reunion at Randolph College in Lynchburg, VA  (formerly Randolph-Macon Woman’s College), to sit in on a lecture by fellow alumna Debbie Bowie entitled, “Using Feng Shui to Clear [...]

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Stress Reduction Secret Combo: Nature and Paper Pitching

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The following is a guest blog post by Connection Messenger Debbie Bowie, a professional organizer and feng shui practitioner whose lecture and book have helped me completely revamp my home office space from one I hated to enter into one that is warm, inviting, less cluttered, and productive. I’ve written in greater detail HERE about how [...]

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Fourth of July Reflections on America

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My husband and I  have just experienced an incredible drive up the coast of California between Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as visits to Point Reyes National Seashore north of San Francisco and Muir Woods. We enjoyed breathtaking vistas of rugged coastline and walked a trail gazing up at immense redwood trees. The [...]

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Don’t worry…be happy!

I’m participating with a wonderful group of women from around the world in a “Play in May” program (coordinated by our Heartspoken Connection Messenger Cyndi Briggs of The Sophia Project), and we’re exploring ways to increase playfulness in our lives. Sandy Phocas (www.co-creativeevolution.com) shared this amazing four minute video. Watch it, think about it, and LIVE [...]

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Closing the Circle of Nature

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One glorious summer morning years ago I left my children with their grandparents in a small town in Iowa and went off to my first encounter with virgin tall-grass prairie. Armed with field guides and an indistinct map, I wandered down washboard gravel roads, not sure I’d recognize prairie when I found it. I did [...]

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Have you seen these signs of Spring?

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SPRINGTIME…the very word evokes vivid images, sounds, and smells, especially for those of us who live in a part of the world where Spring is a distinct season. Spring is also laced with symbols of rebirth and hope after the darkness of winter. Every bulb that pushes its way through clods of dirt into its [...]

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Save our Forests: One Woman’s Crusade

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  “Forests are the lungs of our Planet!” What an inspiration to learn about one young woman’s efforts to save the forests of our earth. Aparna Mulberry of Santa Fe, New Mexico, is on a mission. You’ll enjoy this short video that she created as an audition for a chance to go to Borneo as [...]

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Celebrate Spring with Floral Watercolor Notecards

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Set of 4 Floral Notes by Jackie Catterton Don’t miss Jackie’s Bird and Country Landscape Notecards too!   And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was [...]

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Connect with your Inner Artist

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Introducing Nature Connection Messenger/Artist: Jackie Catteron Sometimes you come across a work of art that is so full of light and warmth and beauty that you just wish you could meet the artist. That happened to me last year when I bought some beautiful notecards featuring birds and flowers and country scenes that just…well, they [...]

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Weirdly Wonderful Orchid Sex

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Okay, so call me a voyeur, but Mother Nature has really outdone herself in devising clever ways to ensure that her beautiful creations propagate themselves successfully. I was mesmerized listening to NPR’s Science Friday yesterday as Flora Lichtman regaled listeners with “An Orchid Explosion:” the story of the orchid genus catasetum, about which Charles Darwin [...]

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The Human Flower Project

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One of the unanticipated joys of writing a blog about the Power of Connection is finding so many others of like mind who are also exploring and writing about connections of all kinds. I just discovered a great website from Julie Ardery called the Human Flower Project. Julie is a sociologist and writer in Austin, [...]

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“Come, my beloved water!”

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These were the words of my son, then three or four years old, when he first saw the Atlantic Ocean. He ran into the surf where the edge of the advancing water lapped his toes, threw his little arms out wide and uttered this cry, much to my delight and amazement. “Come, my beloved water!” [...]

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The Beauty of the Wild…

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Let the beauty of the wild leave footprints on your heart.” Peggy Anderson Sometimes my need for the wild…for touching the natural world…is so overwhelming, I just have to stop and go outside for awhile. I am blessed to live in the Shenandoah Valley, where my ability to do this is just a few steps [...]

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Mindfulness leads to Wisdom

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Book Review of Jack Kornfield’s The Wise Heart You don’t have to be a Buddhist to love The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology. In this truly wise book, clinical psychologist and Buddhist monk Jack Kornfield weaves together real-life stories with spiritual insights to show how to live with greater [...]

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