Nov

The Awe-Inspiring Monterey Bay Aquarium

by Eva Boynton on November 28, 2016

Silhouettes of people visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium, showing the awe-inspiring experiences from two sides of the glass (image © Sam Anaya A.).

Travelers embark on a journey to another world.
© Sam Anaya A.

Worlds Connect Through a Sheet of Glass

The sea is as near as we come to another world.*

Imagine entering a forest of moons, alien ellipses all floating and pulsing with color in a dark blue environment. Their long arms extend, overlapping like tangled branches in a floating forest. Welcome to the world of jellies, one that seems light-years away from our own.

Sea nettle Jellies swimming at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, showing awe-inspiring experiences that connect travelers to different worlds (image © Sam Anaya A.).

Watch these jellies long enough, and you will be transported to another world.
© Sam Anaya A.

We often travel to discover a world different, distant, and new. We search for surprise, intrigue, and awe from foreign landscapes. But here at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, an awe-inspiring world is just on the opposite side of the glass.

Plunge Right In

In travel, jumping right in to a new place often reveals immediate and eye-opening surprises.

I start my travels in the Monterey Bay Aquarium that way. Walking past the entrance, underneath goliath sculptures of grey whales and orcas, I check my map. It says I can stay to the shoreline and work my way gradually to the deep canyon exhibit. But I decide to plunge right in, and head first to the giant tank that captures a piece of the open ocean.

Pacific sardines swimming in a ceiling tank at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, illustrating awe-inspiring worlds (image © Sam Anaya A.).

Silver lights swirl above, Pacific Sardines mimic a whirlpool.
© Sam Anaya A.

The environment in the aquarium changes and a deep blue quiets all travelers. Space opens up, and the tank’s wall of windows reveals another world. Though my feet are on terra firma, all senses tell me I’ve been submerged into the open ocean.

An open ocean exhibit with the silhouettes of visitors in front at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, showing what kind of awe-inspiring connections made to an underwater world (image © Sam Anaya A.).

Travelers pause to take in the destination.
© Sam Anaya A.

My legs and arms are dappled with light from above, just like the sea life I see in front of me. A Green Sea Turtle slowly glides to my left, and a school of Pacific Mackerel swims toward me as if they will cross the glass border and pass me by. Plunging right into the aquarium at these deep-water tanks struck me with awe and inspired me to keep traveling.

Explore the Depths

Traveling gives us an opportunity to explore the depths of life in another place. Looking past the glass barriers, I let the open ocean take me on a journey into a deep blue that resembles a world of zero gravity. I press my face against the glass to get a better look at a Cross Jelly.

A tiny jelly at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, showing the awe-inspiring moments from a world that resembles outer space (image © Sam Anaya A.).

In this world, aliens and UFOs are real.
© Sam Anaya A.

This little spaceship, lit by a bioluminescent band around its edge, floats through the stars. Its muscles contract and relax to pulse through the water, as if sending a Morse code to us humans on the other side of the glass.

A moon jelly at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, showing how awe-inspiring moments can be collected when visiting another world (image © Sam Anaya A.).

This moon rises and sets with a skirt of tentacles.
© Sam Anaya A.

I let go of my footing on Earth and let the ebb and flow of the ocean current carry me. To my right, Moon Jellies drift by like lunar dancers suspended in time. Suddenly they pulse their translucent bodies to change direction. I feel that same sense of awe that travelers feel when they immerse themselves in a new world.

Appreciate the Unknown

When we travel with an open perspective, a foreign environment can be beautiful, elegant and, extraordinary, allowing us to appreciate differences, make connections, and learn something new. My trip to the aquarium was just that.

A squid swimming in an exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, showing what kind of awe-inspiring moments that take place in a different kind of world (image © Sam Anaya A.).

Life underwater dances, glides, swirls, swims, and sways.
© Sam Anaya A.

When I met a Big Fin Reef Squid, it was hard to make a personal connection. These alien ballerinas, translucent dancers all, ripple their tutus and shoot air to propel them backwards.

While I try to make sense of these unbelievable creatures, a five-year-old boy approached the glass and said, “Aw, look at these little cuties!” This little traveler’s sense of wonder and curiosity surpassed barriers, seeing another species just as worthy as his own.

A pacific octopus changes colors in the Monterey Bay Aquarium, showing an awe-inspiring creature from another world (image © Sam Anaya A.).

Can you recognize the creature in the dark?
© Sam Anaya A.

I move on to the dark realm of the Giant Pacific Octopus. A master of disguise, this octopus transforms its color to match its surroundings.

I’m in awe. Right before my eyes, I see colors change from a silver grey to a dark maroon red. With the color change complete, the octopus lifts off the rocks and descends like a red parachute to the glass that separates our worlds. I put my hands to the hard surface, hoping to feel the suction cups that unfurl across the glass.

These two creatures move, look, and live so differently than me, but still I can find a connection and appreciate the ocean’s infinite variations.

Oh, I See the Travel Connections

Traveling is about making awe-inspiring connections with different worlds. The Monterey Bay Aquarium transports us as travelers to an underwater world while still breathing our own air. Though separated from that world by glass, travelers feel a part of it.

In front of the towering kelp forest, volunteer Christine clarifies for us another important connection: “Just remember, everything ends up at the beach.”

Just as new worlds affect us (and we are often never the same), the people and places we meet on our travels are equally affected by us. As travelers we must acknowledge that effect—the “glass” that separates our worlds is actually much thinner than we think.

Visitors in front of the kelp forest exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, showing an awe-inspiring interaction between worlds (image © Sam Anaya A.).

When worlds connect, neither is the same thereafter.
© Sam Anaya A.

*These apt words appear at the entrance of the Open Ocean exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, whom we thank for its constant efforts to connect our worlds. And thank you, Scott Stratton, for connecting me with the aquarium.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Eva Boynton 3 Comments

Art of Travel/Nature Discovery

Aug

WWOOF’s Homegrown Education

by Eva Boynton on August 22, 2016

Two women on a tractor at a WWOOF farm where they learn new skills and may develop into a global citizen. (image © Lizzy Eichorn).

Full steam ahead! The traveling farmer plows the ground for a worldwide education.
© Lizzy Eichorn

From Traveling Farmer to Global Citizen

“Evvvvvvvaaaaaaa, tea time!” my New Zealand WWOOF host would sing to me each day at noon. It was time to return from the garden for a full plate of fresh garden yummies. And so our days on this organic farm progressed to dinner followed by guitar and accordion melodies from a French couple, WWOOF volunteers themselves.

WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) is a global work exchange program. Volunteers work on the farms, and WWOOF hosts offer food, lodging, and an organic education. You get to meet up with people from around the world and, together, you might do anything from A to Z:

—milk cows and make cheese in Argentina

—plant vegetables at a therapeutic center in Kazakhstan

—harvest oranges in Nepal

—become a beekeeper in Tanzania

A woman feeding geese during a WWOOF experience, where she also gains insight into life as a global citizen (image © Courtesy of WWOOF Australia).

A WWOOFer making geese friends in Australia
© Courtesy of WWOOF Australia

As a WWOOFer, you literally break ground, get your hands dirty and cultivate a homegrown education. You arrive at each new destination with a helping hand and an inquisitive mind. You may start out as a traveling farmer, but through the WWOOF experience, you gather crops and the skills of a global citizen.

Connected to the Land

The seeds of WWOOF were planted in England in 1971 when Sue Coppard, a secretary with an office job, wanted to get outside, experience the countryside, and support the organic movement.

A house in the countryside with mountains, showing the WWOOF education of a global citizen (image © courtesy of WWOOF.net

WWOOF locations (this one in Chile) have a close relationship with their natural surroundings.
© Courtesy of WWOOF.net

The organization was created by people who, perhaps without agricultural background, wanted the opportunity to learn to live with and from their environment—a collaboration with mother nature.

Today, WWOOF operates around the globe from Africa to the Americas, from Europe to Asia. Volunteers, as traveling farmers, find a new respect for the dirt underneath their feet and discover how living things, including even the ladybug that lights on your arm, are interconnected.

WWOOF volunteer Kristen Waddel explains:

We dug holes. But we didn’t just dig holes. We gained knowledge of different soil types (mostly clay and sand). We had close-up encounters with local insects and became aware of how greatly entwined into the whole ecosystem they are.

Ladybugs on a plant at a WWOOF farm lead to insights that develop a global citizen. (image © Lizzy Eichorn)

Ladybugs partner with farmers by eating
plant-eating insects like aphids.
© Lizzy Eichorn

Field-to-Fork Connections

Farm life also means eating from the farm. From garden to table, WWOOFers experience the direct connection between their handiwork and its homegrown, delicious rewards.

A basket full of fruit and vegetables from a WWOOF farm provides an education for a global citizen (image © Lizzy Eichorn)

Forget the grocery store and check out what’s in the garden—a rainbow of YUM
from Country Flat Farm in Big Sur, California.
© Lizzy Eichorn

The WWOOF experience is an interdisciplinary education that combines soil, plant, and animal science with culinary arts. It contributes to global citizenship by helping the volunteers understand the full process of putting food on the table in different parts of the world.

A bee hive with beekeepers harvesting, showing the WWOOF education of a global citizen (image © Lizzy Eichorn).

From hive…
© WWOOFers of Country Flat Farm

Jars of honey, showing the WWOOF education of a global citizen (image © Lizzy Eichorn).

…to honey!
© Benjamin Eichorn

While learning these processes, WWOOFers also pick up new recipes (organic and unconventional): Elderflower Champagne, Spicy Pepper Jam, Vegetarian Chickpea Burgers, and Honey Pizza. They learn and enjoy the “field to fork” cycle.

Practical Insights and Epiphanies

Slam! My friends always look at me perplexed after I jam my fist on top of a clove of garlic.

A WWOOF volunteer crushing apples learns skills that have more to do with being a global citizen that you might think. (image© Courtesy of WWOOF Australia).

Smushing apples in a WWOOF lesson
© Courtesy of WWOOF Australia

It was not an angry attack on the bulb but a technique I learned after peeling loads of garlic on a WWOOF farm in New Zealand: crush the garlic and the clove skin slides right off.

On a farm, daily activities vary—repair a fence, turn the compost, plant and harvest crops, cook breakfast, herd goats by motorcycle, crush apples.

Out of these everyday activities come some practical “Oh, I see” moments:

Since honey takes on the flavors of the surrounding flora and fauna, it can taste different in different places in the world.
A pile of mulch compost can produce a heat over 100 degrees, just right for a hot shower.
A wheelbarrow is the perfect place to take a nap.

A woman sleeping in a wheelbarrow on a WWOOF farm where the work develops global citizens. (image © Courtesy of WWOOF Australia)

A WWOOFer takes a much needed rest after working in the sun.
© Courtesy of WWOOF Australia

Other “Oh, I see” moments are true epiphanies—WWOOFer Ciaran Paul explains how he learned the value of uncertainty from his experiences in Turkey:

Due to the complexity and intricacies of farm life, tasks were almost never predetermined, and I reveled in the uncertainty of what the next day might bring.

Learning just how flexible you can be is another. Part of being a WWOOF volunteer is living with a family. Each farm is different and offers a window into family dynamics. When I took ninja lessons from some 6-year-olds, I found out what it means to adjust and adapt to a different lifestyle, literally and figuratively.

Kids and WWOOFer hanging upside down on a pole, showing the education in family dynamics for a global citizen (image © Eva Boynton).

Passing level four of ninja training with my crew at
Tipuana Farm in southern California
© Eva Boynton

Embracing uncertainty, developing an open mind, bending flexibly—all these attributes help people live more effectively and happily in the world. They underpin success as a global citizen.

Navigating Across Cultures

WWOOF education is dynamic and eclectic, but there is more. Because WWOOF farms take volunteers from different countries, the work experience also offers a natural cultural exchange.

A group of WWOOF volunteers working together in Portugal, sharing their cultures as they also develop as global citizens. (image © Courtesy of WWOOF.net)

Global camaraderie in action in Portugal
© Courtesy of WWOOF.net

And WWOOFers, who travel to farms on several different continents, encounter even more cultures, lifestyles, and religions. When they leave a farm, they carry with them new-found knowledge about organic farming and a tool box of global skills derived from the cross-cultural collaboration.

Many have found the motivation to learn in the backyard of their own minds, to respect the people and approaches of different cultures, and that’s what changes a traveling farmer into a global citizen.

Thank you, Lizzy Eichorn, for photographs from your family’s WWOOF farm, Country Flat Farm, in Big Sur, California. Thank you, WWOOF.net and WWOOF Australia, for photographs of WWOOFing in action.

To find more stories and information about WWOOF, check out The Green Compass.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Eva Boynton 4 Comments

Crossing Cultures/Nature Discovery/Worldwide Sites

Jul

First, Dare to Be Wild

by Joyce McGreevy on July 25, 2016

The Art of Gardening to Save the World

A close-up prairie flower in Chicago's Lurie Garden reflects the trend toward wild gardening. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Up close, a wildflower is a world.
© Joyce McGreevy

Here’s what happens when landscape designers dare to be wild. Lavender hyssop, maroon prairie smoke, blue quamash, and frothy calamint run rampant in all directions. The work of creative problem solvers, wild gardening centers you in the heart of nature.

Native spiderwort flourish in Chicago's Lurie Garden, thanks to wild gardening. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Native spiderwort and wild grasses grow knee-high in Midwestern fields.
© Joyce McGreevy

A Wild Surprise

Now, look skyward. See the skyscrapers. You’re standing in the center of America’s third largest urban area. Welcome to Chicago, city of wild surprises.

Laurie Garden, Chicago, IL is the work of creative problem solvers who dare to be wild. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Wild in the City

The urban oasis of Lurie Garden is part of a cultural trend toward New Wave Planting. Inspired by wild gardening, this relaxed style makes plant design less controlled and geometric than conventional gardens.

As Lurie Garden expert Noel Kingsbury wrote in Planting: A New Perspective, “When people say they want some nature, what they usually mean is a particular vision of nature, one that looks nice, fitting in to a distinctly human-centered idea of what nature is or should look like…. The task for the gardener or designer is to create an enhanced nature… one that supports biodiversity and looks just a little bit wild.”

Wild Irish Dreams

Chicago is also where an Irish lawyer dreamed of wild gardens. Says Vivienne DeCourcy, “After 20 years in a Chicago high-rise, I craved the wild West Cork landscapes of my childhood summers.”

Lough Hyne, Co. Cork, Ireland inspires Vivienne DeCourcy, writer-director of DARE TO BE WILD. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Meanwhile, she wrote 16 screenplays, each reflecting her longing to affirm the wild beauty of our fragile planet.

In 2004, DeCourcy returned to Baltimore—no, not in Maryland, but southwest Ireland, where the place-name originates. It’s an Anglicization of Baile Tí Mhóir, Irish for “town of the big house.”

DeCourcy’s home, nestled into a mountain that sweeps down to the sea, inspired visions of a wild garden that invited the outdoors in.

Vivienne DeCourcy's home in Ireland reflects her love of wild gardening. Image © Vivienne deCourcy

Sunset above Roaring Waters Bay, Ireland, home of creative problem solver and filmmaker Vivienne DeCourcy (DARE TO BE WILD). mage © Vivienne deCourcy

Tiny Seed, Big Screen

When DeCourcy finally found the one landscape designer who understood her vision, her dream of wild Irish gardens became a cinematic vision. The extraordinary life of designer Mary Reynolds inspired DeCourcy’s movie Dare to be Wild.

Irish landscape designer Mary Reynolds advocates for wild gardening . Image © Dara Craul/ Mary Reynolds

Self-described “reformed landscape designer” Mary Reynolds
urges gardeners to work with nature, not control it.
© Dara Craul/ Mary Reynolds

By the time production wrapped a decade later, it had involved several Academy Award winners: producer Sarah Johnson (Birdman), costume designer Consolata Boyle, and musicians Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (Once). Acclaimed Irish musician Colm Mac Con Iomaire composed the score.

Tom Hughes and Emma Greenwell star in Dare to Be Wild, a film written and directed by creative problem solver Vivienne deCourcy. Image © Vivienne deCourcy

Emma Greenwell and Tom Hughes portray Mary Reynolds and Christy Collard
in the upcoming independent film Dare to Be Wild.
Both images © Vivienne deCourcy

A love story based on true events, Dare to be Wild has more twists than a corkscrew hazel tree. Ranging from the green hills of Ireland to the arid mountains of Ethiopia, it centers around London’s famed Chelsea Flower Show.

The Olympics of Gardening

This isn’t just any garden show, but the Olympics of gardening. In 2002, Reynolds, unknown and unemployed, became the youngest person in history to win Chelsea’s coveted Gold Medal for garden design. Among the finalists Reynolds bested for the prize was HRH Prince Charles.

Reynold’s “Celtic Sanctuary” featured hundreds of wild plant species, a traditional drystone wall, monumental stone chairs, and a fire bowl–all of it transported to England and built in three weeks.

A Celtic Sanctuary scene from DARE TO BE WILD reflects the film's focus on wild gardening. Image © Vivienne DeCourcy

Recreated for the film Dare to Be Wild, Reynold’s “Celtic Sanctuary”
shook up design circles with its iconoclastic style.
© Vivienne DeCourcy

Now Reynolds and DeCourcy are on a mission to protect the planet. Reynolds has authored The Garden Awakening: Designs to Nurture Our Land and Ourselves. The wild gardening book became an overnight bestseller in the UK and, with advance screenings of Dare to Be Wild, was rapturously received in Japan.

Fans of Reynolds’ book include Jane Goodall—yes, that Jane Goodall:

Wild Buzz

Meanwhile, DeCourcy is generating buzz. As a passionate advocate for the bees that nurture wildflowers and food plants, she wants people to rethink the conventional culture of gardening.

Irish filmmaker and writer Vivienne deCourcy is a creative problem solver with a love of wild gardening. Image © Vivienne deCourcy/ Dr. Michael Sheehan

“We need to throw a lifeline to the wilderness,” says DeCourcy,
echoing a line from her screenplay.
© Vivienne DeCourcy/ Dr. Michael Sheehan

“Only by experiencing the wonder of wild nature locally can we appreciate what’s at stake and be moved to protect wild nature globally.”

One way to do this, she says, is to replace conventional lawns with clover.

“The typical lawn is a matte green desert that guzzles chemicals. It cannot support a single bee—a creature responsible for one in every three bites of food we take.”

But a clover lawn is a habitat, where nature’s balance can thrive. “It supports a myriad of pollinators, only needs mowing once a year, and, being chemical-free, presents no toxic downside.”

The grounds of Lismore Castle, Ireland showcase the beauty of wild gardening. Image © Joyce McGreevy

A Wild Idea

Suddenly, a smile lights DeCourcy’s face. “Imagine your clover lawn, then a hundred of them, and then thousands, and you can see how easily we could create a sanctuary for our friends the bees.”

“Oh, I see”: The seed of a wild idea can grow into gardens around the world.

DeCourcy and Reynold’s wild ideas took root in Ireland, spread to Ethiopia, and flourished in England and Japan. Now they inspire gardeners everywhere. That’s what happens when creative problem solvers dare to be wild.

See the trailer for Dare to Be Wild here. Follow it here.

Meet Reynolds here and discover her gardens here.

Explore Chicago’s Lurie Garden here.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Joyce McGreevy 1 Comment

Ireland/Nature Discovery/The World's Art & Design/USA

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