|
South
Florida winters are mild and dry. This is a time when the air
becomes crisp, mornings and afternoons are cloudless, and everything is
charged with possibility. Unlike the dreariness of a colder
climate's winter, ours is one of delight.
Take some
time right now and think of your experience of winter in South Florida.
Do you have any favorite places you like to visit outdoors?
Although
winter is our dry season, it's a feast for animals. For plant life,
it's a time of grounding, going deep. For me north also
represents origins. I invite you
to read this paper. I wrote it for a course on cosmology I
took in the spring.
|
"During the dry season (December to
April), water levels gradually drop. Fish migrate to deeper pools.
Birds, alligators, and other predators concentrate around the pools to
feed on a varied menu of fish, amphibians, and reptiles. This abundant
food source is vital to many wading birds who are nesting during the
dry season."
Source:
http://www.nps.gov/ever/eco/ever101.htm |
Consider the
following questions as you visit north and explore what this direction
suggests for us:
-
How do
you honor the source of your being? What does that source look like?
-
Where is
your inner north? Post short entries for each of these questions.
(I will explain where you need to place your responses.)
Use the
previous responses to complete a a two or three page essay discussing
your own origins. Feel free to use
my essay
as a guidepost of sorts. You should also read
Gary Snyder's piece on
place.
I encourage you to explore the following interviews as you work on your
writing related to north.
~from On Our Own Terms with
Bill Moyers
Source:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/onourownterms/final/index.html
 
On Dying:
Program 1
Terminal Esophageal Cancer Patient Dr. Bill Bartholome and Wife, Pam
Roffol Dobies
What to
Expect When Death Comes:
Program 2
Dr. Sean Morrison, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine Dept. of Geriatrics
and Medicine
Choosing to Die:
Program 3
Kitty Rayl, Terminal Uterine Cancer Patient |
|