The month of August drips through my fingertips like an endless, steady rain. Now, three weeks into the month I'm aware that my tales of life in the woods are rushing down the ridges and ravines along with the flow of water. It's time to stanch the flow and tell a story, maybe two....
In mid-August I attended the 25th annual T'ai Chi Chih Teachers' Conference in Nebraska City, Nebraska. The conference was held at Lied Lodge & Conference Center, just a brief walk through the woods to Arbor Day Farm. My travel companions and I arrived a day early in order to explore Arbor Day Farm. It was a marvelous adventure.
I won't lie: my trip to Nebraska overflowed with information, stimulation, and excitation (there was an excess of food, conversation, TCC refinements, and continual energy flow). But our half-day exploration of Arbor Day Farm was a highlight of the trip. For here, in the middle of a hot, muggy day, I found a spot that reminded me of my home in the North Woods of Wisconsin. At Arbor Day Farm trees are a vital part of the landscape and economy. Tourists and visitors travel to this destination to learn more about the key role trees play as they preserve our atmosphere, our natural world, and our daily lives.
Lied Lodge is intimately tied to the mission and principles of Arbor Day Farm. When guests enter the Lodge reception area, they are greeted with a large banner that recites in 12 different languages: Plant trees. Trees are, in fact, an integral part of the architecture and design of this lodge. Tree trunks are planted in guest rooms and hallways; their presence brings the hotel to life and infuses it with an energy that sets it apart from more traditional lodgings.
The walls in the lodge entryway are inscribed with quotes and sayings about trees that travel along the ceiling and down the hallway. These quotes sing the praises of trees and acknowledge the vital role they play in the health and sustainability of our natural world.
Arbor Day Farm continued this theme in a kid-friendly, playful, educational, and instructional way. We climbed a five-story treehouse that placed us high in the canopy of trees and gave us a beyond-human view of our surroundings. This treehouse also contained a pavilion filled with kids' projects that explored the bounty and beauty of nature: a segment of bee hive, skeletons from woodland creatures, and much more.
We walked the woodland trails and joined in explorations that lined the paths: identifying animal prints, ID'ing smells, learning how to recognize a variety of trees, and playing a wooden xylophone in the kids' area. When we returned to our starting point, we enjoyed a fabulous film, "Trees in the Movies," that included visual excerpts from major motion pictures such as Shawshank Redemption, Lord of the Rings and Forest Gump, in which trees played a starring role. Another conference participant told us later that the movie, Avatar, would have greatly expanded this forest feast.
Before leaving Arbor Day Farm we stopped at the greenhouse to pick up our free Colorado Blue Spruce to plant in our own yards. What better way to share the message of Arbor Day Farm than through a tiny seedling that, as it grows, offers shade and oxygen, life, and beauty to our own small piece of the planet?
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