Nature Connection Spring Sampler
Dates, times and logistics TBD
Join a group of nature lovers for a day of exploration on beautiful Vashon Island. We’ll gather to share core practices for nature connection, then choose an area of focus for deepened exploration, and return to share stories of discovery with one another around the fire.
Art of Herbalism: Using Herbs Effectively
By connecting with the plants with all our senses, and learning to perceive the plants, ourselves, and our world through the nature-based language of “herbal energetics” -- we can discover how to work with herbs to address common conditions.
We’ll learn the basics of “herbal energetics” -- a nature-based understanding of plants through physical sensation, experience, and observation. We’ll learn how to “think like an herbalist” when supporting a friend or loved one with herbs. And, we’ll create a poultice, compresses, tea, or tincture to take home. Discover plants as friends and teachers!
Jane Valencia is a founder of VWP, and in her seventh year as a VWP instructor. Jane loves to share the healing magic of the plant world with those who are curious to work with these green beings. She has worked with the herbs to support the health and wellness of family, community, and herself since 2001. An instructor with the Vashon Wilderness Program, Jane presents workshops on herbal healing ways both on- and off-island. She is a graduate of the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine's Herbal Immersion Program, and is a continuing student of community herbalism and of the plants themselves. Visit her website at ForestHalls.org.
Song Catching
Singing can be a place of vulnerable power, a way of showing up, in gratitude for the place, plants, and people we love. Singing can be a way to channel and possibly transform our emotions. Through song we can find strength and resilience. Through song, we can find community with the natural world.
In our time together, we’ll explore what it means to be a song-catcher and song-carrier. We will explore ways to drop into a place of deep listening; we’ll sing songs and wander- and with that be invited to ‘catch’ a song and work through it, alone and in smaller groups. We will come together to sing a round of new songs to carry out and onward.
Linda Moore is a student of the Wild places within, and a weaver, song carrier, plant lover & mentor. She has been supporting VWP programs since 2013 as an apprentice and then instructor and substitute instructor, and guest instructor. She has been leading song circles & workshops since 2014 on Vashon, in Seattle and in Guerneville, CA. In 2018 Linda completed Heidi Bohan’s 7 month field course: Ethnobotany- Traditional Skills Plant ID Course. She is always learning to embody reverence for all things; to deeply honor this beautiful earth, waters, and is committed to caring for this place she calls home. She is ever grateful for all her Teachers.
Bird Language
It is said that birds have the power to lift the human spirit. They also provide us with an immediate and intimate way to understand the natural world and our place in it. For millennia, humans paid close attention to these winged ones and learned to interpret their sounds and behaviors for survival. While relying on bird language is no longer a survival tool in our modern world, it is a pathway to thriving: birds still teach us about how to slow down, listen, and raise our awareness.
Participants will begin to identify birds by their songs, and to understand the meanings of the birds’ language using a range of learning methods and core routines.
Joanne Jewel is an avid birder and has instructed with VWP for over 10 years, including teaching our Bird Language course in 2019. In addition to reconnecting young wise ones with the forests, meadows, mountains and beaches, Joanne has worked with adults in the Environmental Policy field. With her husband Rob Peterson she feeds many happy Vashon families from the land at Plum Forest Farm, on the traditional lands of the sx̌ʷəbabs people.