I recently spent a week with IslandWood’s School Overnight Program. I had been given the gift of time and wisdom. As I embarked on using that time, someone I don’t even know all that well wisely said: What are you curious about? Why are you, you? And what about your life has been most influential?

I started to try answering those questions for myself. And what I continued to return to as a theme that seemed to be a catalyst to those questions was AWE. Every time I felt awe, it ignited an opportunity to learn, be more grounded, and see myself in context to the world with greater clarity. I wanted to see, sense, and feel something I had dreamed of experiencing but hadn’t had time, or pushed myself or advocated hard enough to experience firsthand.  What has sparked awe in my life, and how can I bring more of it back into my life?

And so, the trail was set…and this Trailhead to AWE, with a bit of fate, had been marked twenty-plus years ago.

Through a mutual contact, I had the extraordinary pleasure of sitting with IslandWood co-founder, Debbi Brainerd, and thinking about IslandWood’s role in spawning the next generation of environmental stewards across the Northwest. I recall at the time this remarkable fascination, curiosity, and to be frank, fantasy of one day experiencing what they described as a multi-overnight, full immersion into nature that would be forever transformative. Who wouldn’t want to experience such a phenomenon?

Fast-forward twenty years, and thanks to a dear friend and leader in the conservation and environmentalism community, I have found myself on the Board of IslandWood, serving this extraordinary organization’s vision and mission. By doing so, I pledged to advance, grow, and share my life skills to extend its mission impact into the future!

IslandWood staff Instructor, Talia, with students in the School Overnight Program touching moss growing on a tree on our Bainbridge Island Campus.

As I entered my second term on the Board, coupled with seeking more AWE in my life, I was asked by another friend and former board chair whether I had ever experienced the IslandWood School Overnight Program. He suggested that I see, feel, taste, and sense it from start to finish, so I could witness what I heard about, saw in videos, and read in testimonials.  Megan Karch, the CEO of IslandWood, graciously paved the way. And, by the way, she was the person who asked me those hard questions at the beginning of this piece.

Finally, I was going to experience the IslandWood phenomenon firsthand. I felt grateful, nervous, and excited.

The “AWE” Trail:  Awakening, Wondering and Experiencing  

The yellow bus parade arrived at the Welcome Center, jammed full of students from all walks of life, different countries, religions, lived experiences, and, for many, no deep experience in or with the natural world. You could see, hear, and feel anticipation, excitement, and even what they would articulate later: the desire to turn around and go home.

Our team of graduate students and staff was prepared for all these feelings and spent hours understanding where the student’s frame of mind and emotions were likely at. They were here as trail guides to knowledge, experiential learning, and a program that could ignite a lifelong passion for nature.  But more importantly, I was able to see how our graduate students and staff began expressing their expertise to create learning experiences that could invoke curiosity and wonder. Everything from greeting each bus to making eye contact with each student and sharing a smile, a warm hello, a helpful hand with their bags, and learning each student’s name was intentionally done to help confirm the students’ agency and bring out the very best out of them.  Everything, and I mean everything, was intentionally designed to create a sense of belonging, inclusion, and hospitality. The team was setting the “trailhead” to help reduce hesitation and apprehension and channel those feelings toward three significant cornerstones of the IslandWood experience: noticing, observing, and wondering!

This view into the program, which I had heard so much about, commenced my journey toward a deeper understanding of the IslandWood experience.

And like that perfect hike in nature when you come to one of those grand vistas and feel as if you have been transported out of yourself and into the marvel of co-existing with nature – and you hear that classic movie music reframe – (something like Tada!). It happened to me like this…

IslandWood Staff Instructor Talia reviews the plan for the day with students.

Talia, our great staff instructor, nature guide, and teacher, had set up the day with a brilliant lesson guide with pictographs on a piece of colored paper.  Today was all about introducing the students to the marvels of nature, which would help them — and me — practice the cornerstone of the IslandWood experience: noticing, observing, and wondering.

After a number of experiences of practicing how to really notice and deeply observe, we tried out the ultimate revelation of the meaning of the IslandWood experience for me — wondering.  There I was, standing next to a fifth grader named Olivia (name changed to protect privacy), all bundled up in a winter jacket with her hood on, looking high up at the massive trees, all aglow in their fall color.  As Olivia looked up, she held on tightly to her assignment for the day…checking in on her classmates and asking them how they were feeling. I simply stood next to her and looked up at the forest canopy myself. After some time, Talia, our ever-wise instructor, came by and asked us to share; what were we wondering? I purposefully stayed quiet, which was difficult for me, and my new friend offered what she was wondering about.  Olivia said, “I am wondering how the trees got here and why they are the color they are.”

There I was standing next to the WHY of IslandWood! I knew that Olivia was destined to help us solve many of our most vexing and challenging issues. She not only had a keen eye but was also capable and confident sharing what she was thinking with someone she just recently met.

That was it for me…now I knew why I was a board member and why I was so dedicated to IslandWood’s mission and striving to help more and more students, just like her, have the IslandWood experience.

As we walked along and chatted further, I looked at Olivia and said, while pointing to the feeling wheel, “What are you feeling now?” (The feeling wheel is a tool IslandWood instructors use to help students express their emotions and begin to hone their social-emotional skills.) She looked up at me as a soft drizzle started to fall and said, “I feel excited.” And then Olivia asked me, “What are you feeling?”

The feeling wheel is used as part of building social-emotional skills with students.

To be honest, I was feeling emotions that ranged from contentment to a sense of purpose and, most of all, a sense of energized anticipation for the future of IslandWood, the Northwest, and, quite frankly, our planet.

And this was just one of the many revelations and Awe-filled moments that I was going to experience…each day I spent with the program brought more, from the night walk to the teams course to the friendship circle sharing.

The “AWE” Trail:  Arriving at a Deeper Understanding of the IslandWood Experience and WHY I was Here to Serve its Mission Even More

Over the last few years, I have been sitting in IslandWood spaces during board meetings, listening to various presentations, and planning for the organization’s future. At almost every meeting, I would walk over to a donor plaque commemorating their support for IslandWood. It says, “We came for a visit and experienced something that was uniquely special, and we knew we had to help make it happen.”

Board member David Wu at the top of IslandWood’s canopy tower with a student and teacher participating in the School Overnight Program.

I felt the same feelings, and many others have shared the same sentiment when they have experienced the IslandWood way. And frankly, I had felt it intellectually and in a mission sort of way, but this experience truly helped me transcend IslandWood’s vision from just a place to a compelling experience and set of examined lessons that moves one from feeling overwhelmed by the future, isolated by the unknown, and even frustrated by the past to feeling energetic, optimistic and incredibly courageous about the future.

At the beginning, I mentioned I had a gift of time and support from others to inspire me to experience the IslandWood way beyond the board room. At the same time, I was reintroduced to an interview with philosopher John O’Donohue, who helped me further examine my experience and why I believe so fully in the WHY of IslandWood and its future.  An On Being interview with John O’Donohue and my interpretation of it goes something like this…

Well, I suppose I was blessed by being born into an amazing landscape. So soon, being a child and coming out into that, it was waiting, like a huge, wild invitation to extend your imagination. And then it’s right on the edge of the ocean, as well, so the conversation — an ancient conversation between the ocean and the stone.

Well, I think landscape and nature makes a huge difference, when you wake in the morning and come out of your house, whether you believe you’re walking into dead geographical location, which is used to get to a destination, or whether you’re emerging out into nature that is just as much if not more alive as you, but in a totally different form, and if you go towards it with an open heart and a real, watchful reverence, that you will be absolutely amazed at what it will reveal to you.

And I think that that was one of the recognitions — What amazes me about landscape and nature, landscape recalls you into a mindful mode of stillness, solitude, and silence, where you can truly receive time.

I am so very grateful for this gift of time, reflection, and the rebirth of a sense of AWE and WONDER.  I am also so thankful to all those who have made the IslandWood experience accessible to hundreds of thousands of students over the years and hundreds of thousands more into the future. And most of all, I am deeply appreciative of the support of IslandWood staff Megan, Ray, Zach, and Talia, current and former board mentors, the entire Graduate Program, and the fantastic IslandWood team that made my transcendent experience possible.

As we near the end of the year and look to the next, I invite you to join me in supporting this much-needed, awe-filled organization, and help make IslandWood programs accessible for more and more students like Olivia.

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