These last few days have been a whirl -- a whirl of activity, a spiral through conversations, in and out of meeting so many people, up and around mountains.
It all started last Thursday with Bart's Books, a longstanding Ojai institution. Bart's is an outdoor bookstore and has been around in Ojai for a very long time. Even the outer walls of the store have shelves full of books. See the picture for information on how to pay for books when the store is closed. Talk about being based on an honor system. Speaking of which, it is not
uncommon to find in Ojai bags of fruits laid out on a street-side stand. You pay what is requested or what you feel like for whole bags of oranges, avocados or persimmons.
My visit to Bart's came in the midst of meeting many people -- friends of friends, the many someones of Ojai, connected to education or not, with young children or not, all just really friendly people. I literally spent all of Friday in and out of conversations with people. I visited a unique nature-based school called Grounded by Nature (school website coming when the facilitators and founders can peel themselves away from the important work of being with the children). Focused on exploring learning in connection with the natural world, the school has developed its own farm, it teaches permaculture practices as they relate to building the school's own site, explores a number of outdoor environments, teaches wilderness and survival skills and exposes the children to any number of outdoor activities including rock-climbing and surfing. The central premise of the school is to help children fluidly navigate the inner and outer worlds, remaining aware and responsive to what is outside them in relation to how it connects to what lies within. And, it does so while remaining responsive to the intellectual needs of learners.
That experience was followed by a weekend with my cousin, Shuchi seen here creating a flower arrangement with Vehd. We walked, talked, ate much food and went on a hike. In the midst of all that, I met John another friendly Ojai soul. John comes from Germany and is conducting some art research here. We went for a walk with him. As he described his experiences in Germany, we chanced upon his interactions with Jewish people. He paused to tell me how full of guilt he felt the first time he spoke to a Jew. He described how while his generation did not commit holocaust crimes, they live with the guilt. Its hard to shake it off. They just carry it within them. Its part of the culture. We contemplated this emotion together -- of guilt and how it stands like an unsaid wall between the Jews people and non-Jews of Germany. As long as non-Jews feel the guilt, they cannot intearct with Jews wholly. It was a touching conversation. I have such high regard for John's openness -- we had only just met. I look forward to seeing him soon.
The final whirl came in switch-backs and water pools of the Horn Canyon hike. My words cannot do justice to the stunningly beautiful trail. I'll just say that it was breath-taking and especially energizing as we spent a whole morning doing the hike with our friend Michael, Rowan and their 8-month old son Maxwell.
I am still catching my breath from the whirl of people, emotions, sensations, food and the moutains. I almost delayed writing this post so I could include more pictures but I couldn't hold out any longer so forgive me for the lack of pictorial description. More in the days to come.
Hi Anoo. I found your blog when I was googling 'Grounded by Nature' to see if they have their website up (not yet!) Its your neighbor from around the corner, we met at Asha's house before you left town. I was so sorry the boys didn't get a little more time to spend together, but I blame myself that I let the time get away. Glad to hear your time in Ojai was magical. My email is tiffanyanncole at g mail. I think Sebastian would enjoy playing with Vehd when you return- maybe they will be in the same class next year at Oak Grove. ~ Tiffany
Posted by: Tiffany | January 31, 2011 at 02:01 PM