Springtime for the Positive Pathways / Nature Beats course
The new Positive Pathways / Nature Beats course starts up again, at Rough Close woodland on the outskirts of Coventry.
Last Wednesday (29/03/2017), the new Wild Earth group went out to Rough Close woodland, on the outskirts of Coventry, for their first outdoor day of the Positive Pathways / Nature Beats course.
It was a beautiful, fresh spring day and, even as we first gathered in a circle together in the car park to begin to tune into the sounds of nature around us, the air was filled with birdsong.
We walked to a lovely site - a clearing among tall birch trees - which we have never used before. Before unloading the equipment and setting up camp, we each did a ‘sit spot,’ five minutes sitting quietly on our own, just observing and listening to the living world, with a question to reflect on also. The question was, ‘is there anything I would like to leave behind me right now, as I embark on this new phase of my life?’ And when we returned afterwards, a few people chose to share their thoughts and feelings in the circle.
All the young people showed a lot of courage and willingness to trust in signing up for the course and coming out on this first day. The fact that a few already felt able to speak out in front of the group and share something about themselves really helped to build a feeling of a safe space in the group. This feeling grew stronger right throught the day, with people obviously feeling comfortable enough to try lots of new things and risk getting them wrong in front of each other.
The first thing we did was look for hazards on the site, and check it was safe to set up camp there. Then the group learned some new knots and took on the task of hanging the tarp from the trees, so that we would have shelter. The mentors, two particpants from the last course, got to work collecting kindling for the fire, so that when the tarp job was done, the group could crack on with getting it going for us to sit around and cook our lunch on.
We had a lovely relaxed meal and lots of laughter around the fire, and afterwards, everybody got involved in a brilliant discussion about what ‘safe space’ means to them, and how we could ensure that our own group would go on feeling safe to everybody, even with new people arriving the next time we met. They made a great agreement together which we all signed, and then with the remainder of the time, everybody got to have a go with the sound recording equipment, exploring the area in terms of its natural music, and discovering how to create interesting new sounds using the natural environment and some beautiful hand-made instruments too.
By the time we had packed up, been for final sit spot, and were sitting around the fire together for the last time, reflecting on our experience, we all agreed it had been an amazing day, well worth pushing through all the nervousness at the beginning of the day.