On August 30th, 1859 Henry David Thoreau wrote these words in his journal:

“Indeed, it is by obeying the suggestions of a higher light within you that you escape from yourself and, in the transit, as it were see with the unworn sides of your eye, travel totally new paths. What is that pretended life that does not take up a claim, that does not occupy ground, that cannot build a causeway to its objects, that sits on a bank looking over a bog, singing its desires?”

Of course, we do not hang on Henry’s every word. And at times we argue with him (or at least I do). But we do want to succumb to the wild light that burns within, to read the earth with the soles of our feet and to see with unworn eyes, and to wade into the bogs of our wild desires. The mission of The Naturalist School is to find our way into nature and to help others to do the same. Walking is the way. So is writing. And art. And meditation.

If that sounds good to you, we will be at Waubonsie State Park and other locations on Sunday mornings in July, guided by wild poets, artists, and woodland spirits. And songbirds, dragonflies, and toads. And frogs.

Contact me at thenaturalistschool@gmail.com.

–Jack Phillips

An unworn toad (new metamorph, Anaxyrus woodhousii), June 30th. Photo by Troy Soderberg.