Today At Maymont

Ok, so 8:30 in the morning does not agree with me. However, I was there with Heather and ready to help make Maymont look its best. Everyone else was assigned to work in the Italian gardens Dead heading roses. Peggy assigned me to leaf blowing, and that did not sound very calming and nature oriented, but it was fun. I got to drive a golf cart around and I cleaned the front of the Nature center and all around the barn. I loved the fact that the goats enjoyed eating the leaves that I blew into their pen. The coolest moment however came in the form of the circle of life. After I had finished blowing and met up with the rest of the volunteers in the garden we saw the neatest sight. A Hawk had just plucked his prey of a garden snake out of the garden and was about to enjoy his meal. WE stood there and watched as the hawk eviscerated the snake and ate every part of it. We all thought this was beautiful and we laughed at the insane Mockingbird who kept pestering the Hawk. The Hawk, upon finishing, lifted its hind feathers in a graceful large movement, and defecated. It just goes to show that not all of nature is pristine but it is all important. I had a lot of fun and I am excited to see what we do next week at Maymont

The first real blog

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I walked into the first few classes, p[probably some religious readings, a few documentaries, and a grim reminder of how our planet is in peril. I will admit that some of that is true, but not exactly in the way one would expect. The second day of class after the usual teacher introductions we watched a very interesting video that was a compilation of nature scenes, my personal favorite is the one that dealt with the water crashing on the rocky island beach, and I also liked the waterfall. As the Teacher well knows I have a big love of aquatic environments. While we did this we had to write a haiku. This was mine
The water wakes the earth
Brings life to all, great mother
Home, pleasure, clean

Throughout this project I thought of the Henry David Thoreau piece that we had read. The activity fused the art of writing with the communication of nature. Although we did not get as in touch with nature as Mr. Thoreau did with Walking, the effects were similar. If nothing else I want to experience nature in a different more thoughtful way. The name of this blog is Beneath the Bodhi Tree for just that reason. We have read a lot of technical articles that I slightly understand, but as an English major I relate better to the literature.
Today in class I had my first experience with the service learning aspect of the class. The English language students came and I got a first hand experience talking with European cultures. The first gentleman that myself and my friend Heather talked to was named Francisco and he is a wonderfully charismatic guy. He was really friendly and I asked him if there was a lot of Environmental issues going around in Spain. He showed us an article about how America was beginning to look at Spain for ways of windmill energy. He also told us that he was writing his thesis on renewable energy because that’s what he was studying in Germany before he came to the United States. However, he also said how people in Spain were lazy and how he thought it was interesting that people in the US were interested in that. Our next partner was from France and he said that French people really don’t talk about environmental issues that much. On a personal level we really clicked because we are both fans of Horror movies.
Tomorrow I am going to Maymont Park to work and I am excited to report on those events. Looking back at the last few weeks I feel that I have been given a taste of what is to come. I have always been interested in both World Religions and the environment but I have never really thought about how they fit together. I feel a bit angry about the ways we have treated the Earth although I feel that the anger is a bit superfluous, instead I want to take the energy and focus it on learning and growing as both a person and as an environmentalist.

This blog is dedicated to the memories of Michal Jackson and Ferrah Faucet!

Beginning of the blog

Alright so it is quarter of one in the morning so I shall make this a quick intro and I hope to add more tomorrow. The initial hope of this blog is to discuss the things I am studying in my class. The class is called Global Ethics and World Religion. Throughout the course we are going to take service learning activities, readings on nature and conservation, concepts of different religions and put them together in order to better understand the personal hand print we have on the world. I cannot wait to delve into this subject and I hope that later on this blog will continue to be used for similar things. Sleep well and I will get back with you in the morning. Thank You to Corey for helping me get this thing started!