A New Year
View facing west from Parkman Mountain in Acadia National Park on New Year’s Day.
So we have come to the close of 2020, and the beginning of a New Year. The past ten months - the duration of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States thus far - have been rife with grief, frustration, isolation and uncertainty. Nature Links participants have not been immune to these hard times, weathering personal losses, sickness, displacement and separation from their loved ones. One constant during this long pandemic have been our classes together - every week, three times a week. These regular meetings served as an anchor, a reliable and predictable source of connection. They also served as an invitation to new learning and exploration, when inspiration was hard to come by on one’s own. Far from being a distraction from our hardships, we found friendship and learning to be a remedy. To learn is to invite in something new, to expand your world and sense of self, to cultivate a sense of wonder and interconnectedness. In dark times, instances of joy, connection, friendship and creative inspiration take on a more profound meaning in our lives - they are our saving graces, our reason for continuing to take risks and grow.
In other words, our online Nature Links classroom has been a space that welcomes and fosters hope. As one parent wrote to me in late September, it is an “oasis” where learning and growing out of our perceived limitations feels possible again:
During the isolation that the pandemic requires Nature Links is providing an oasis where friends can come together and actively participate with each other, learn and even prepare nourishing foods to share virtually. Art and music is opening new pathways for exploration and expression. How grateful our family is for…the participants in Nature Links.
As lead teacher for Nature Links over these last three seasons, I have observed incredible growth in our participants. Whereas our group began as a collection of individuals all showing up for different reasons, it has evolved into a caring community, in which everyone contributes and listens to one another with respect and compassion. What has developed most significantly in all our participants is a sense of fellowship, between each other and with their wider community and ecosystems. From this feeling of belonging grows personal confidence, because one knows where one stands in relationship to the world. The effect is profound and ripples outwards, refusing the alienation of young neurodiverse adults that is endemic to our society and reimagining humanity as a loving network that includes all people.
I am thrilled to see Nature Links continue to develop its vision into 2021, under the direction of new Lead Teacher, Rene Neuner, a passionate and creative educator with so much to offer! As I step down from this position in order to move my life to another state, I am grateful to continue offering weekly art classes and stay in touch with participants. Maintaining my relationship with this group is just as important to me as it is to the continuity of the program - my life would certainly not be so rich and full without my friends in Nature Links.
I would like to close this reflection with the words of our participants. In class before the end of the year, I invited everyone to practice reflective writing and have conversation around what makes us feel proud, what makes us feel hopeful, and what empowers us to move forward. Below are the questions we considered and our collected responses. I encourage everyone reading this to reflect on these questions, and to find inspiration in the confidence and pride of this group of Nature Links students!
All my best wishes for this New Year,
Maddy
What is something I accomplished this past year of 2020?
What do I feel proud of?
I am proud of...
teaching cooking class!
sharing what I learned with my family.
my braveness with Nature Links.
my ability to teach a dance class.
my ability to teach some sign language.
making new friends!
keeping my friendships alive.
the ways in which I took care of myself - exercising, cooking good meals, and spending time with my family.
losing some weight this year, and keeping to my new gluten free diet.
managing to write 15,000 words and develop my fan fiction.
I feel alive, my passion is back, I’m glad I joined Nature Links and met wonderful people to learn things.
doing cooking class with my mom.
sharing my songs in Nature Links.
my best friend.
myself for cooking by myself without my mom.
my listening skills.
my commitment to saving wild animals.
What is something I hope for in the New Year? Share your aspirations, wishes, or prayers for 2021.
I hope to...
meet my friends in Nature Links face-to-face!
travel and visit my family and friends so I can spend time with them and cook for them.
be with my friends so we can mess around, have fun, and be creative together. (I am grateful for WhatsApp and FaceTime, but it’s not the same!)
see my friends and go on vacation.
I pray for my friends and family to be happy in the New Year.
I hope for this virus to be extinguished and gone away!
What are my goals or resolutions for the New Year?
What do I want to do, or be able to do in the future?
What will I work towards?
I want to...
exercise and feel healthy!
improve my household management skills and clean my room regularly.
not eat too much sugar.
play a sport.
sing in my room, and for other people!
learn how to play the violin and piano!
do more story writing and work on my book.
perform in a play or musical.
make my own movie about what it’s like living with a brain injury and PTSD.
learn and practice more gluten-free recipes.
go back to work.
learn grade two of braille, and become a better reader in braille.
