Look straight ahead and imagine that your eyeballs cannot move, like the owl’s eyes. Sitting absolutely still in its tree perch, the owl stares and sees 180 degrees in all directions. It puts its mind on “off” and just gazes. This patient expectant open gaze is the way to look at the sky when you […]
How do you express the beautiful impact this school has on a child and our families? It’s hard to express in words. Our journey all began a while back when I went through 2 years of Community School (our teen once-a-week program). This program forever changed my life and left a lasting impression on me. […]
I remember sitting on the dock at the lake house, where I lived during my time at WAS, in early spring with my friend Michelle. We were watching the sunset, talking about our boy troubles. When it got chilly, we went inside and had some friends over for a delicious home-cooked meal, after which we […]
I was on the first week of my field biology job in the mountains of North Cascades National Park when I got a message from the trees. I had been doing Wilderness Awareness School’s naturalist training series for a few years, but it still took me by surprise to hear trees talking. Or maybe it […]
One of my housemates brought home a big mushroom for the dinner table. I sniffed at it suspiciously, nervous about the edibility of an unknown (to me) fungus. A friend came in and buried her face in the plate-sized cap. “It smells like…” she searched for the term. “A beautiful woman’s hair,” she claimed decisively, […]
Figurine frogs. They lined my shelves in my tiny New York City apartment. Those plastic and ceramic friends were my heart’s delight. Nature finds a way to flourish in the human heart, especially in the imaginations of five-year-old urbanites. It’s no surprise that as a young mother of three, I would eventually find myself on […]
I didn’t want to come to Wilderness Awareness School. Rain. Grey. A survival trip that required me to find my own food for a week. I was happy living in sunny California and originally told my partner he could go without me and just tell me all about it on weekly phone calls. Now, here […]
For my professional career, I travel the country and count birds for a living. In my personal life, I am a recovering addict and active participant in my 12-step program, guiding others on their own journey toward addiction recovery. My time at The Immersion has not only deepened my connection with nature and improved my […]
During Guild Weeks at The Immersion students can choose from a variety of passion-based skills, such as entering the mind of a Scout. This past week I had the awesome opportunity to participate in three amazing days of training in “the ways of the scout”. The scout is a member of any tribe who acts […]
The year at The Immersion is coming to a close. We gathered for our last week of “normal” class time before embarking on the final three weeks of class; also known as the ‘The Gauntlet’. The Gauntlet is the time where we are put to the test to see how ingrained our skills are that we learned this year. But before […]