Stepping Stones to Wholeness
Becoming More Fully Human
For the past twenty years I have been teaching an environmental science course at Penn State for non-science majors. During this time I have experimented with many ways of inviting students into direct encounters with the wild world of nature, as well as their own inner wilderness.
In the winter of 2007, I decided to organize all the various course exercises, practices, activities and field studies into a coherent manual. I was aided in my effort by Austin Mandryk, who shaped and enriched this manual. Working together we have created a series of twenty explorations that serve as “awakening” opportunities.
These explorations are grouped into four sections. Taken together this four-part journey has the power to awaken body-mind-soul to the gift of life. Walk lightly, follow your heart, open to the mystery....
- Stage 1: Sensing Body.
- 1) breaking the ice,
- 2) listening to body,
- 3) the importance of touch,
- 4) coming to our senses,
- 5) the energy of emotions and
- 6) the power of language.
- Stage 2: Sensing Earth.
- 7) the story of the universe,
- 8) our relationship with trees,
- 9) transforming the ordinary,
- 10) the ecological footprint, and
- 11) an ecological meal.
- Stage 3: Sensing Mind.
- 12) searching for the essential self,
- 13) focusing on beliefs,
- 14) the discipline of listening,
- 15) the power of questions,
- 16) the practice of truth speaking.
- Stage 4: Sensing Soul.
- 17) slowing down,
- 18) understanding personal change,
- 19) exercising agency,
- 20) creating a vision for one’s life.