This where I live is of course only a town environment with some trees, but a contact with the nature can teach especially skills of living with the seasons, see my long text
http://finnishskills.blogspot.com/2014/11/living-with-seasons.html , and somewhat also other skills, see this quotation of mine:
"
http://finnishskills.blogspot.com/2015/02/visiting-finnish-nature.html
" Visiting the Finnish nature
The Finnish nature is famous for it's unique fragile beauty. Also
Finland as a nation without much written history has it's roots in the
old forest dwellers who were mainly farmers and at earlier times
hunters. Most modern Finns spend a week or so of their summer holiday
on a summer cottage by a lake shore.
Finns have a different attitude toward nature than most foreigners,
because the nature here is very different from the nature say in
Central Europe, where the nature is mostly farms and gardens and parks
too. The Finnish nature is wild, not gardened, and it is praised for
it's beauty and peace, and it is scarce: there are not somany trees
and not so many dangerous animals. The maybe best way to learn to walk
in the forest is to visit a small forest patch in town or some well
kept recreation area, and pick some ordinary not-at-all-rare stone,
flowers, fallen branch, fallen autumn leaves or the like for home
decoration. If you mainly admire the nature for it's beauty, you will
walk in the forest much like the Finns do. Then you also notice where
you are going, which route you came and the like, so that you do not
get lost as easily. Finns value forests for their recreational value
and for their connection with the original ages old ways of living of
all humans close to the nature. Remember to wear warm clothes, not to
let them get wet and have extra clothes in case it gets cold. Take
always care that you know how to get away from the forest!
* * *
A quotation from my blog
http://einoleinopoems.blogspot.fi . Eino
Leino is a very famous old Finnish poet, writing about the beauty of
nature and the laws governing life, and about love etc
"About the possibilities of going to the nature in other countries
Finland is sparcely populated and there are lots of forests which one
can visit. And since we live in the north and the cool and cold
weathers prevent dangerous animals from living here, and since the
wolves and bears have been hunted to a small population, visiting
forests is safe. In other countires it is not the same in most, since
there is more population, less nature, more dangerous animals and no
custom of everybody visiting a forest. But if you are intriguided by
the idea of the beauty and peace of nature, it would be good to find a
way to enjoy them at least somewhat. Gardens, trees, parks, meadows,
sea and shores, even flowers on the window offer a touch with the
nature. So do scenic spots, views out of a bus window where there is
green, farming and nature reserves. In a way it does not matter how
big spot of nature you have, you could even enjoy trying an insect's
or bird's view of the near environment which is often beautiful and
magnifient. On the other hand, the more the environment allows you to
drown into enjoying the nature, without sight of build things or human
foot-print spoiled things, the more profound your experience of peace,
harmony, health and fracturelessness is, the more profound your touch
with the ages old healthy natural ways of living on all areas of life,
the more refreshing your experience is, the more it gives energy and
serves as a holiday.
Another question is safety. Generally there are three types of safe
places: ones with so many people that it has been taken care that
there is safe, ones with nobody and no dangerous animals either and
thirdly places which do not tend to have any danger. Parks have lotrs
of people, but odd times may be dangerous Places where people live but
where there are trees, for example on the sides of the roads and
yards, may have atranquil atmosphere, one of nature's peace and
harmony some time (in the summer time?) when it is daytime but a quiet
moment or a few quiet moments. Some scenic routes offer harmony and
beauty even if there go cars by quite often, if just the views are
with a fascination: there a tiny flower by the roadside, there the
shelter of trees, there a view over the shore to a lake, there a bench
with a view, shelter and a comfortable atrmosphere. One can also visit
forest patches that are not so much wandered on, if one goes to
different places, in different times, often with company and a car of
one's own. By the sides of garden area's roads there is often tall
grass with flowers, butterflies etc, a world of it's own, very summer
like, kind of an ideal of love. And even in the winter time there is
the weather, the feeling of the elements with trees living their ages
old way of life.
* * *
5. of July 2016
From th text about the seasons
http://finnishskills.blogspot.fi/2014/11/living-with-seasons.html
"The beauty of nature is partly a question of a way of looking. One
should be interested in the multitude and richness of forms and
colours, of the atmosphere of plants' growth whne looked among other
things along the way they have grown, the magnifient moments of bird's
flight, treen looked from near, the nature from the point of view of
an insect or bird where even a small branch or grass can be biggest
factors of the living environment, the atmosphere of the time of tha
day with it's birdsong, light coming through the leaves to a mist, how
one always finds new variations slightly different details full of
feeling and atmospheric for example in pine's surface and it's thick
branches, in the beauty of a forest lanscape viá trees, the different
atmosphere of each type of lants etc."
Also safety when one happens to meet people in lonely places is
important. One question in it is paying attention to other people's
sense of space: what is their home, what near environment, which are
the common roads for all to travel, do they enjoy solitude or want to
exchange a couple of words about the beauty of nature, etc. Another
point in that is allowing people socially room to live in:
http://healthilymoral.blogspot.fi/2016/06/finding-safety.html plus
links from there."
* * *
Relationship to the nature is not just watching the nature. It has to
do with the sense of atmospheres: recognizing the time of the day from
how high the sun shines, recognizing the basic features of the nature
environment like "This is typical pine forest." or lake shore with
splashing waves, stony shore, tree branches by the shore. It also has
to do with understanding the basic actions of how animals live and
what is the style of the plant life, like an ant running, carrying,
meeting other ants, watching, etc. In this sense in these basic things
in life the nature offers fine forefigures in such basic skills, but
it has to be the nature of your own climate and culture and not some
too faraway place, even though one can learn something of such too,
like of arctic nature about staying warm. But relationship to the
nature also has to do with understanding nature's language: admiring
the magnifient beauty of the nature landscapes and other impressive
nature views, kind of absorbing what the nature is like, how high it's
skill in those basic things in life, what style it lives and how it
communicates to humans.
Birds are social and eager to take part in the life in the landscape
around them. They may nag or tsirp and their songs are said to be akin
to music, kind of original form of music and some birds sing with high
skill. But like wild animals at öarge, birds live their separate life
from humans, may build a nest, have offspring, live their lives in the
affairs of birds, kind of symphatic, kind of beautiful and fierce, a
refreshing element also in the town environment. A bird's flight is
often magnifient to look at. "
https://kalevalainenglish.blogspot.com/2018/02/kalevala-and-skills-aim-of-this.html
" Kalevala and skills, the aim of this translation
- February 28, 2018
Finns have wisdom that most other nationalities lack. Part of that
wisdom comes from reading Kalevala, but Kalevala is a difficult book
to translate. This wisdom comes from learning via close relationship
with the nature and living with the four seasons, in ever varying
weathers. There is wisdom that one can learn from the challenges of
one's life, wisdom about doing one's very best and learning new
skills, and getting strenght to other things done from what one has so
learned, so that it was not just one experience but way to learn for
all of one's life.Also when one encounters something concretical and
ages old, one can learn about the basic nature of humans, about the
wisdom encoded in our nature, about wise ways of living, about
profound ages old way to live and be social, kind of basic form of
life, something which is at the core of every human deed adn fate,
even in these modern times. So my intentipn has not been to translate
Kalevala as poems or fine words but only to translate some things of
what it teaches skills for life, wisdom about the human nature and
about ways to learn about life, about what is profound in the world.
But Kalevala is a long book and this is just a beginning of the ephos.
The Finnish relationship to the Finnish nature is essential in
understanding Kalevala. But of course foreigners seldom know the
Finnish nature. So I have tried to translate the nature contact in a
general level that would apply in other climates too, even if there
are less possibilites of wandering in the nature. It is a big problem
in Finland for foreigners that they tend to get a flu and it just
lasts and lasts and so they are just ill and dizzy and don't learn
anything much while in thius climate. So what they need to learn, they
ought to learn in their original climate, even if things there are
very different from Finland. The nature is of course different too,
but in this way of learning the point isn't mostly in what the animal
or plant does, except that it is ages old, but instead on it having a
varying rythm (courses twinding in a structured way), on it having
wisdom in it's ways of doing, in encoded in it's atmosphere, in it
touching our ages old nature. And on the other hand it learning,
especially at quite young age, about what it does also other skills
needed for life, like from watching beauty of nature one learns to
look at landscapes and observe a lot, understand life in the living
and gain wisdom of life.
* * *
My other texts offer suport for this endeavour: I have written about:
* living wisely the seasons
http://finnishskills.blogspot.fi/2014/11/living-with-seasons.html
* healthy ways of living and doing
http://finnishskills.blogspot.fi/2015/11/healthy-ways-of-living.html
* learning thinking skills
http://pikakoulu.blogspot.fi ,
http://quickerlearning.blogspot.fi
* learning other skills
http://learntalents.blogspot.fi
* working life and feelings
http://workandfreetime.blogspot.fi
I have also translated some famous Finnish poems:
http://EinoLeinopoems.blogspot.fi
* * *
February 28th is the time of the year when winter skills are at their
highest, and so it is also Kalevala's day in Finland, day of the
Finnish culture.
* * *"
http://finnishskills.blogspot.com/2018/06/weathers-charm.html
"Thursday, June 7, 2018
Weathers' charm
I do not know for sure how being with the weathers, their fascination
and the reaching for the skills they need, is taught. But maybe if one
as young or beginner would go out to look at some fascinating weather,
like storm coming or storm having just passed, and just look at the
magnifient clouds, sun shining somewhere through, feel the atmosphere
of the moment with someone who understand the charm of such and has
the skills of living such weathers, for example one's papa, and at the
same time another separate thing is to be prepared for the adjustemnts
between cold and hot, moisture level changing, rain coming, sun
passing through etc, which one can learn from wild birds which do well
and from the tree species orginally from the climate one is in. So
having trees and other nature at the spot is a good side.
Similarly one can later learn about the charm of milder weathers from
those who like them, enjoy them. This is one reason why it is good to
talk of the weather: to learn skills in living, to get advices from
those who like them, them telling what is it that charms then in mild
rain sun passing through etc.
But I think it is very climate dependent what weather one should start
from and which to emphasize to find a pleasant and healthy way of
living all the weathers and moments of the day. Often more sporty
moving is good for the cooler weathers and for varying weATHERS.
By the words of a traditional Russian song (In the forest not a leaf
moves) "Even if I would forget everything else, this charming moment I
would never forget."
* * *
6. September 2018 I am not sure of this, but my impression
is that each weather, also in widely different climates, is best lived
in a way which you find when you pay central attention to some fine
whole of the nature, like an atmospheric branch in nature, that is
especially spirited in it's view of how to live such wetaher and to
which heights one's wisdom of life, skill, virtues of character and
enjoyment of life could so rise,for example on some animal of the
wilderness, and from siuch viewpoint pay attention to it's view on the
ways of living: that is what is the way of living such wetahers and such
temperatures, maybe such days, evenings, nights & mornings. Follow
that advice and search for a new advice when the weather is clearly
different.""
