Finding Wonder in the Woods
My name is Gary Hernandez, and I’m the leader of the after school Outdoor Explorer’s Program for Brunswick Junior High School. Since we started together in September, our group watched the foliage turn from green to orange to a crisp brown, when the branches of the trees eventually faded into the late fall landscape.
At the start of our sessions, the students had trouble exploring on their own. The sad part of being in a classroom for eight hours a day is the loss of childhood wonder — the kind of wonder that engages with nature for pleasure rather than a means to a larger, academic goal.
The students struggled to reacquire this wonder. The first question they asked me was, “What do we do now?” My answer was simple, “Do what you want to do.” As momentum gained, our group gravitated towards hide and seek; we searched for salamanders; we played baseball with sticks and pine cones; we wrote a poem about a leaf; we learned how to use acorns as whistles. There was never an agenda that imposed a goal or plan. Everything we did transpired organically simply by judging the day’s weather or how the group was feeling energy-wise.
Students in Outdoor Explorers enjoy a game of stick ball in the Maine woods.
The program began to foster a connection among us. It posed an alternative to the traditional educational system that tries to create interconnectedness through daily expectations and assignments.
One day, as we gathered for the session, a student brought a binder, pen, and paper. As we ventured into the forest, he began to stare at the trees and listen. He stood there attentively and patiently. I asked him what he was doing. He looked at me and smiled. “Listen, they’re talking,” he said of the changing trees.
Naturally, I bombarded him with questions. “What did they say? What language do they speak? How come I can’t hear anything?” I asked these questions with a kernel of impatience. I couldn’t quite understand what he was getting at with these tree chats, and I dismissed his observations as silly, but he persisted.
From then on, he continued to bring his binder, pen and paper to interview trees and tell their stories. Eventually I joined him. Sometimes the trees were annoyed when I leaned on them; sometimes they were excited that an interviewer was approaching to ask questions; sometimes they remained quiet despite the interrogation. By then, the entire group joined in the conversation and relied on the student to translate what each tree had to say. He was our connection to a mystical word.
My earlier kernel of impatience became a flower of curiosity. My experience of being in the woods with these students, and being there with intention, revived my forgotten sense of childhood wonder. I’m sure the trees would report the same.
Blog contributor Gary Hernandez is a student at Bowdoin College. He leads the Teens to Trails Outdoor Explorer’s program through Brunswick Recreation Department, as part of a college experience called Student Community Action Network.
