Helloooooooo! :)

Mayhaps I just start releasing this on Tuesday hahaha, just give myself one day of grace cause it seems I can’t figure out how to get this all posted mondays. Anyway…

Happy Week ahead as it’s finally time to stop planning for having kids on site and just have them already. Time to see how all this planning and prep work of schedules and the educational team actually join together to make a memorable experience for the students that join our Outdoor School. This opening week is just a 3 day program so it’s enough time for chaos to ensue and also just short enough it serves as a great segue route for the staff as to what full weeks will feel like.

As for other happenings in life, I have recently started a 100 day journal series alongside my best friend Jay where we are following along in Suleika Jaouad’s new collection of prompts The Book of Alchemy. Each day we read a small essay and then journal on the prompt that comes out of that essay. At some point in the day we check in with each other letting the other know our prompt is complete for the day and occasionally we may share a line or two from what we wrote, but most other times it’s just about having the accountability pattern in  completing a project together. It’s been a great thing to have scheduled into my nightly routine and I’m already finding lots of patterns in my thoughts. Patterns that i was pretty sure already existed but it’s a more real feeling to see them all dictated onto paper right in front of me.

Okay, it’s time to move on to the delights of the week. I got bread in the oven that I got to make sure I have all this wrapped up so I can attend to it. 

- Staff Training week last week started with the most favorite of all days… HR Day!!! Yay paperwork and lots of talking. Honestly, not that bad. Especially when I can take that meeting from the floor next to this guy. 

- A simple final evening before heading up to camp for the next few days for on-site staff training. I’ve enjoyed spending time with the flowering tree. I should learn its name but so far it’s been fun to observe as my pink and white flowery friend.

- A few sights from camp. :)

- Also like the camp food this week with our new chef!!! My goodness we were eating so good last week! Falafel, Lasagna, Mushroom Burgers, Egg Quesadillas, Shrimp, Ratatouille, I mean I should’ve taken more photos cause my golly goodness there were so many delights inside of every bite. 

- While doing my morning reading I noticed my hair shadow dancing on my book pages. It felt like a gentle reaffirmation of my existence and presence to make impacts on the world, no matter how small. This also had me paying more attention to my hair throughout the day and I’m noticing more grays… My salt and pepper era is inbound.

- The happiest of sunsets around town. It’s a joy to be around Ashland when all the hills are green!

- I saw a lovely Ashland fringe festival performance of the AMAMZING show “Over The Garden Wall”. If you don’t understand any of this, well that’s okay. We can plan you education time for Late October when the cider is fresh pressed and the autumn colors fall. Until then start to educate yourself on some rock facts. They are always good to have around. 

- AFC WIMBLEDON IS IN THE PLAYOFFS!!!! This seasons has been stressful as someone who can only watch the games via highlight reels and following along google updates. But after a near end of season collapse, we have found the stride again and we now get to move into the playoffs to go for a shot at promotion to league 1. The next two weekends will be clutch football time as we are making the case for us to go to Wembley for the playoff final, and I’ll be biting my nails each Saturday morning as I listen to the radio call of the games. Also I found this lovely film photo account of a fan of the team that I’ve been delighting in recently!

- Also GO STARSSS!!! (I realize my sports fandom is very oddly concentrated in a variety places) but wow oh wow what a game 7 this was. The Avalanche were a spectacular team and I really thought they were gonna push Dallas aside after their 2-0 lead in the 3rd period, but the former Avs star Mike Rantanen showed up in a big way with a a hat trick in the final period to seal the series victory! 

- Also just had lovely phone calls with friends and family this week so so happy. Thanks to everyone who said hellloooooo.

Okay, I’m out of time, it’s time to head up to camp :) 

Much Love to you all and if you want to share your delights of the week my inbox is open and ready to delight with you! 

All the love,

Dan

Howdy Folks,

The Longer this project goes on, the more I seem to delay in writing my delights. Partly, I am almost full swing into the Outdoor School season and that is utilizing a lot of my brain power as well as just consuming a lot of my physical time. Yes these days may be long, approaching 14 hours some days with intermittent breaks, or weekends spent planning and prepping as I have stepped into a new role as a Coordinator for this season and well, we’re kinda flying by the seat of our pants. The main goal it seems, stay one step in front of the staff. Heck, sometimes you’re just a half step and well, that’s okay.

This will be my 5th Outdoor School Season. A job that I first found in a large Facebook group and applied for on a whim because I had never been to Oregon. What has come out of it is hard to fully encapsulate; And I’ve tried writing this out multiple times now, another reason why this is posted late. But I think, a portion of it can be encapsulated in what I got to see tonight. 

Tonight there was a group of people who were dancing around a campfire, singing silly songs, and performing ridiculous skits. The air was filled with laughter echoing off the hills and mountains around us as we prepare this ridiculous show to perform for more than 100 kids each week for the next 5 weeks. A collection of people who come from all walks of life, farmers, raft guides, music teachers, restaurant owners, soon to be firefighters, and more. The connecting piece? A desire to provide a positive outdoor experience and a sense of belonging for all the kids we get to serve. Yes this is outdoor “school” but we are not interested, nor will we test, their ability to recall all the facts that are shared in the course of the time they are here. Rather, we are trying to showcase what we have already found for ourselves, That when we connect with Nature, we connect with ourselves. 

From being in a deer blind at 15 as the sun rose above the golden fields to walking through the cool rocky streams on the way to pick up the mail at gymnastics camp, I got to see for each staff member how one formative outdoor moment planted the seed for the person they were to bloom into. And what’s so special is knowing that for some of these 5th and 6th graders is that they will have that experience at our camp. Even if it’s just one kid this program is a success. 

How will I know if this has happened? Well honestly, I probably won’t. I do only get to spend 3 maybe 4 days with them and it’s barely enough time to learn all their names let alone make a full connection with them all. But it’s my hope that maybe in 5-10 years a kid may just reach back into their memory bank and think of their time at Outdoor School and see that the first time they held a frog has inspired their interest in Marine Biology, the first time they performed a skit in front of all their friends gave them the confidence to pursue the arts, or just spending a few days outside wasn’t all that bad so they did it more and more and now they too are passing on the joy of nature to the next generation to make lifelong lovers of this magical world. Or maybe and so often we never even know, this is the few short days when a kid can just be a kid. Fed and housed with a feeling of safety for the first time in a while. 

I feel incredibly lucky to spend my next 6 weeks alongside this staff in pursuit of our goals and will be so excited to share the chaos that unfolds.

As for all of this weeks delights, the WiFi here may not allow many photos from this week to load so you may just have to use ImaGInaTiON. So let’s dive in :)

I saw the cutest little inchworm while walking up on the trail above town. He appeared dangling from the tree above me and I barely caught the glimpse of them as they were suspended in air performing their own cirque de solei act perfectly in sync with the tunes playing in my headphones.

Driving back from camp I saw the cutest golden retriever in the back of a truck bed. Tounge out smiling wide!

At out first school that we visited, there was a rabbit running around the parking lot that we are convinced is somebody’s pet that got out for how fluffy it was. It was quite the lovely welcome into the chaos of ODS.

MY PARENTS CELEBRATED THEIR 36th ANNIVERSARY. Yes, this does make them old. But also like they got much wisdom to share from all these years of marriage and raising us goobers of children. Hopefully I haven’t been tooooooo much of a pain :)

I held a ball python that was the class pet of one of the schools we visited! His name was Reggie.

I gave a whole presentation on Outdoor School to a group of parents and administrators at a school who is coming to our program for the first time and it went oh so very well! After I got home, i realized that my face was still covered in my charcoal “sport” paint that I was playing with while in a lesson with their students earlier in the day.

 I saw Mt.Shasta. She’s a beauty. I love her.

I got SO MANY books at goodwill!!!! It helps to stash them so you can come back for them on half price sundays.

I pet a goat and Tarmac (the camp therapy dog) while tabling an event at the local science museum.

There were lots of turkeys running around the park in Ashland. To bad they are protected…

I got to hang out with my friend Mitch and his wife Meghan for the first time this season and it was a joy to catch up over a brew and some zaaaaa.

I saw oh so many plants that were blooming with great color that were just accentuated in beauty by the sunsets and the lovely rock art left out for all to see.

And lastly I enjoyed so many great phone calls this week with so many lovely humans. Harrison, Jay, Julia, Laura, Ryan, Ethan, Averi, Mom and Dad, and more :) y’all are awesome. If we haven’t chatted recently let’s talk soon!

Okay I need to go to bed haha it is late. 

Much Love to you all,

Dan

P.S - JAY RAN A HALF MARATHON THIS PAST WEEKEND AND IS A CERTIFIED BEAST! 

Hello Dear Ones :)

What a week this has been. Sometimes I go into a week wondering what kind of new delights will surface throughout the upcoming week because even as I begin to work in getting ready for my outdoor school season, so much is up in the air. Anyone that has worked with children in a educational setting knows that Mike Tyson’s quote “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face” is a way too accurate portrayal of what it’s like to bring a lesson plan to life. This may be my 5th season teaching some of these lessons and yet each time, there is something new to uncover.

I think for me this is part of the grand appeal of education. No day at its core, if we are paying attention, is the same. The people may be the same, but that is about the only thing that is the same as we teachers are constantly adapting the plan to meant the varied needs and learning goals of our students. And the hardest part, but albeit my favorite part especially in the very short windows of time i get working with the students in my program, is building the relationship of trust because as Rita Pierson said in her famous TEd talk “Kid’s don’t learn from people they don’t like.” 

It’s just Tuesday of this 4 day long week of 12 hour days going into classrooms and introducing outdoor school to all the lovely students we will work with this spring, and I’m glad to report that I think that foundation is setting up quite nicely. Maybe I’m crazy but I find that there is a great amount of trust a kid has in me if they feel confident to ask “Are you Zesty?” My response, which had no real thought put into it. “Like Parmesan Cheese” Which has been a lovely topping on some of my meals this week So let’s get into the delights shall we.

I sent a lot of my friends this wacky little personality quiz and I loved getting everyone’s responses. The art work was just so cute and chaotic and it seems a lot of my friends are tomatoes, which is great cause that pairs so well in Salas’s with my jalapeño self. Which yeah, does anyone wanna learn how to salsa sometime soon???

The food I ate this week was a whole joy of love in its own right. French toast, omelets, quesadillas, fresh bread and bagels, potatoes and egggs, pancakes, life was full of great meal this week and I wish I could’ve shared more with all of y’all. 

And i did get to share it with some good friends! One night we had the gang all over for some ravioli and a nice bottle of Temparnilllo (did I spell that right…) and another night there was chaotic impromptu ideas to have a 9:30 pm pancake dinner party with a lovley strawberry compote. Wowza what a good night. There were jazz records, pancakes flying across the room, even banana toppings finding their way flying through the air. I love how the people around here are so childlike in their souls. It’s just such a joy to be around.  

Ravioli Night

The Before

The After

Look at this cool White Fir Cone I found!

I mean all these other flowers and trees have been equally amazing and vibrant filling the streets with wafts of allergies and sneezes. But if that’s the price of beauty, I’ll pay that admission price two times over. And I am

Ace Hardware gives out free popcorn and that’s just delightful.

I played a lot of disc golf this week with my friend Caden and some of his friends around town. By the end of each round. I was just figuring out how to control the disc and on each day by the miracles of the high heave and above I managed to sink shots from more than 50 ft away. It’s such a satisfying feeling to hear the crashing of the chains or the ring of the propane tank. Also if regular golf is a good walk ruined, well than disc golf is a great walk detoured! (No discs were lost, which honestly, quite surprising)

The Sunsets this week have been simple and yet so elegant. Blue hour, how I love you so.

These little creatures I saw in the windows while on walks that I got to catch up with my dear friend Averi. What a lovely human she is and her heart and love are extending to so many projects back in Massachusetts. 

LOOK AT ALL THESE CATS!!!! LIKE AHHHHHH SO MANY!!!! or maybe the same one on different days 

Lastly on Sunday evening I got to dance the night away with The High Step Society. EDM really isn’t my style of dance normally but ya know if you mix in a lot of New Orleans Swing and Big Band vibes well… I’ll be moving and grooving all night to their tunes. What a joy to see them before they leave Oregon back to NOLA to continue working on their upcoming album.

Wowza what a week what a week. I’m excited for all the time with students this week and also just excited to get to know more the new staff better. Already this week has had unexpected delights that I’m excited to share about next time. Until then, Adventure is out there and if you have anything you want to share or just a topic you find interesting I would love to hear about it. Write me here! :) 

Take Care you lovely loves and may this music send you into a such a lovely week ahead!

Dan