Make Meaningful Connections
In this last newsletter of the year, I'd like to share a source of positive online news. It is a section in The Washington Post called Inspired Life with carefully curated stories "for a better you, a better community and a better world."
My favorite story of 2018 was written by a preschool teacher in Washington, D.C. She had taken her class of 4- and 5-year-olds to a nearby park where they came across a giant tree that had fallen across the trail. She asked her students to come up with theories on why it had fallen. One guessed that "someone had cut it with giant scissors." Another suggested that they find out more by asking hikers.
The students penned a letter to hikers asking what they thought had happened to the tree. They left the letter, along with index cards and pens, in a Ziploc bag in a wicker basket by the tree. As they left, their teacher silently worried. What if no one in workaholic D.C. bothered to read the letter? What if the city's hikers just zipped by, looking at their phones and never noticing the wicker basket? She even toyed with the idea of writing a letter and secretly putting it in the bag before their next weekly walk.
She needn't have worried. The bag was filled with responses in the form of letters, drawings, and haikus. One note was written in French. People shared their ideas and observations, and talked about their love and admiration for trees and nature.
This story resonates with me because it illustrates one of the main points of The Connector's Way. The author summarizes it best:
"So, what did my social experiment teach my children? The power of knowledge-sharing and community-building, especially in nature. But this experiment also taught me something. That D.C.’s hustle-and-bustle reputation doesn’t always hold true. And that in the digital age, we can still forge meaningful social connections in real life, even in the modest woods of Washington."
With that, I wish you a wonderful holiday season and a New Year filled with meaningful, real life connections!
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