Headwaters Outdoor School: About the School

Nature As Healer

Modern man's desire for an easier life than his ancestor's has almost eliminated his connection with nature. Our desire to conquer nature has distanced us from the magic and wonder. We relate to it as if we were in a museum looking through the glass. Most people's relationship with nature is through the Discovery Channel or National Geographic channel. We engage passively.

The earth is a living being. It is the source of all life - even to men and women who wish to conquer her. The first photographs from space in the sixties softened and spellbound even the most ardent corporate hearts that felt our resources were endless.

Most people I meet have no idea what it is to have a personal relationship with our earth and with nature. We are fascinated with Native American culture. We absorb the rituals with little thought to their true origin. I remember reading about the great Native American leader Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe whose people lived in the northeastern area of Oregon in the Walla Walla Valley. The people believed that they had always lived there from the beginning of time. Every tree, rock, meadow, valley and mountain had a history that was known to the tribe. They knew that the animals, trees, rocks, water, meadows, valleys and mountains sustained them and were worthy of their respect and love and care. Downed trees and bark provided shelter. Animals provided food and clothing. Water was their life force. The valleys and mountains were their rooms, the sky their roof and the earth was their foundation. When the US Government forced Chief Joseph from his beloved homeland, he led the tribe on an epic journey to the Canadian border where he was captured and taken to a reservation in Oklahoma. He died shortly thereafter for his connection with the home he loved had been broken.

We have lost the respect and care for our earth because we no longer live in it but upon it. Think of a time when you were moved by a sunset or felt peaceful and happy sitting quietly under a tree. Perhaps a bird migration caught your eye as you drove sealed within your car and you felt an inexplicable yearning. Remember the last time you were caught in a storm and it made you feel alive? As I teach nature awareness and outdoor skills at my school, I observe that as people begin to reconnect with the earth they are vulnerable and teary-eyed and often ask what is happening to them. As one's daily city life is left behind and the earth rhythm begins to take hold, the heart and soul connection grows stronger and one realizes all that has been missed. Sitting quietly for an hour in a grove of trees feeling the wind, hearing the call of birds and smelling the richness of loamy earth can do more for the physical body and the psyche than an hour in therapy or an hour in front of the television.

A good question to ask ourselves when we feel beleaguered, depressed, sad, angry, full of yearning or overwhelmed with what our life might mean is can a beautiful spot in nature where there are no people or few people, where I am but a small part of a big whole - can such a spot fill me up and make me feel happier? Is it possible that trying to find out what "my" personal relationship to nature might be helps me find my true self?

A Native American teacher of mine once said "we need to walk backward into the future". Living in cramped cities, apartments, gated communities and housing tracts where nature is a manicured lawn and a professionally landscaped garden breeds estrangement from the natural wonders. Walk backwards into the woods, live like we used to live - in the earth. Build an earth shelter, sleep in a bark teepee, sit for a day under a cedar tree and watch the sky. Find your future!

See you in the woods,

Tim Corcoran
Headwaters Outdoor School