Biking on the Interurban: 4-15-17

Laurel and I had an amazing day with the Trilliums this past Saturday biking on the Interurban Trail. The day started out chilly but by lunch time there were girls sprawled out in the sun in T-shirts and bare feet. We couldn't have asked for a better day and the group did great sticking together, encouraging one another, and muscling up the big hills on our journey from Fairhaven Park to Lost Lake trailhead. Some highlights from the outing included:

-The usual check-in during Opening Circle and welcoming Jaeli into the group!

- Biking laps around the Fairhaven Park parking lot before taking off down the trail...we looked pretty silly doing it:)

- Stopping at the first overlook to enjoy snack and chit-chat during a rest break

- Getting "gnarly" on the single-track down-hill section of the trail in Arroyo Park. 

- Enjoying the trailside views including flowing rivers, cascading waterfalls, and scents of spring as we meandered our way through the forest.

- Stopping mid-way to build forts and reunite the Muddy Butt (now the Muddy Fish Butt) religion.

- Stopping for lunch and Peaceful Place at an INCREDIBLE property with donkeys, a pond, a large waterfall, a beautiful cherry blossom tree, and a sunny lawn to lounge on.

-Making it to our destination just in time for closing circle and an attitude of gratitude for sunshine, good friends, new experiences, mud, and more.

Enjoy the Album of our day here.

Trilliums Service at Woodstock Farm 3-12-17

The Trilliums joined with the Silver Salmon and Sea Stars this past Sunday for a day of service at our adopted site, Woodstock Farm! The group gathered in the muddy, busy parking lot of North Chuckanut Trailhead before loading onto the bus for a short ride to the service site.

At our Opening Circle, we checked our preparedness, as the weather called for a day of low temperatures and potential rain. We also talked about why we are serving today, and reviewed another motto, Our Cups Overflow. The Trilliums agreed that people are not the only ones whose cups can be empty, and that today we would be filling the cups of the cedars, firs, ferns, fungi, eagles, rabbits, deer, maples Woodstock Farm in all it's bayside beauty. The girls pointed out that even though we "pour our overflowing water" into other's cups, our cups are not really emptying but in fact filling!

With that magical aspect in mind, it was time to get to work! The Trilliums dropped packs, had a quick snack, and then headed down the hill to do trail clean-up and brush removal on all of the trails that weave throughout the Woodstock Farm property. The girls had fun doing a little mud gushing at the beach, and spirits were high as we slipped and slopped our way up the muddy trails and through the forest, ending our first task at a big mossy clearing that presented a new battle: Ivy removal!

Without missing a beat, the Trilliums set to work pulling, climbing, cutting, and hauling ivy out of the woods where it was fiercely taking over huckleberry bushes, maples, cedars, and young saplings. We were muddy, sweaty, and determined to keep up the fight when we finally took a break.

With a good chunk of service done and many native plants left free to breathe and grow, it was time for lunch! The three groups rejoined on the bluff where we ate, chatted, and compared mud stains and "battle scars" from our busy morning of brush hauling, weeding, and invasive plant removal. We played a giant game of Spider's Web all together and then it was time to get back to work! Soon enough it was time to walk back to the bus with our GIANT bag of invasive plants, and meet up with families and friends.

Our words of the day? Mud, IVY, Service, Friends!

Enjoy the shared slideshow from the day here!

Mottos especially alive today:
Be Prepared
Our Cups Overflow
Safety First
Widen Your Circle
Walk Your Talk
You See It You Own It
Attitude of Gratitude

Service With WTA 2-26-17

The Trilliums knocked the socks (or should we say hard-hats?) off of the WTA crew this past Sunday with their hard work, determination, and "tenacity", to use the words of one of our crew leaders on this day. Our day began with a quick check-in from the group in our Opening Circle before joining the good company of our work crew leaders. We couldn't have asked for more mindful, generous, and enthusiastic WTA leaders to guide us through a day of trail-building on the Fragrance Lake trail. After a crash coarse in tool use and safety, we slapped on our hardhats and set off up the trail to our work site.  



The WTA builds and maintains trails over the entire state of Washington, and their volunteer trail maintenance program is among the largest in the nation. They log more than 105,000 volunteer hours statewide each year, and over 2500 volunteers giving back to the trails they love. Our group hiked in over a mile with tools, hardhats, and full packs to work on a section of the trail that needed rerouting.

Highlights from the day include:

*Connecting with one another and our WTA crew leaders as we hiked our way up the beautiful Fragrance Lake Trail. 

*Using and learning about some "real deal" trail tools including McLeods, Pulaski's, hoes, and hand saws, among other tools. (Ask your daughter about the use of each tool or which was her favorite!)

*Getting down and dirty as we hauled brush, transplanted plants, built up berms, and moved around rocks, small and LARGE with shovels, hoes, and our own strength and willpower!

*Learning new skills such as how to properly haul rocks, techniques for sawing logs, good transplanting and hole digging techniques, and safety checks/tips throughout the day. 

*Enjoying stories and connecting over highlights of the day as we ate lunch together before getting back to work!

*Accomplishing the unthinkable- sawing through a log that was a foot in width and happened to be in the middle of the hiking trail!

*Watching a once tromped and eroded section of forest transform into a beautiful forest garden, complete with new plantings of salal, oregon grape, sword ferns, and saplings! We felt proud stepping back at the end of the day to look at the incredible amount accomplished through our teamwork, strength, and determination!

*Hiking down with tired arms and legs but full hearts and Overflowing Cups* after a day of giving back to the forest, the community, WTA, and the many hikers who will wander up and down this beautiful trail for years to come. 

*Finally, enjoying hot cider, cookies, and Fig Newtons from Arlen, our very generous and comical crew leader. 

To close our day we shared our practice of Attitude of Gratitude and stood together with our WTA crew as each shared something they were grateful for from the day. We have a motto, Our Cups Overflow**, that describes the feeling of giving back to the plants, animals, friends, family, and many intertwined communities who are impacted by these service days. It felt like our cups had created a river of overflow that day. While basking in this river of gratitude, we each shared our thanks for things like the mud, the sun, the company of one another, meaningful work, strength, service, Explorers Club, and WTA. 

Our words of the day? Collaboration and Muddy Construction!

Enjoy the full album of our day here.

Mottos especially alive today: Our Cups Overflow, Get Dirty!, Collaborate and Compromise, Stretch Your Edge, Connect and Protect, Walk Your Talk, Widen Your Circle

Trilliums Games & Teambuilding 2-11-17

The Trilliums (a.k.a. Suave Squad) collaborated and problem solved their way through challenge after challenge this past Saturday during our first ever group Team Building outing! During our opening circle, we checked in and caught up with one another after a long month apart. The group Widened the Circle to welcome one of our new group members, Lilo, into the Trillium family.  There was a buzz of positive energy and excitement throughout our day together as the girls formed new connections and rekindled the old.

The girls wholeheartedly embraced the mottos Stretch Your Edge, Safety First, and We're All Teachers as they worked together to complete each task at hand. More impressive than the completion of each task, though, was the rich discussion, thoughtfulness, creativity of ideas, group growth, and collaborative problem solving that occurred during the process. As we say in EC, it's about the journey, not the destination, and the depth of teamwork and both group and individual edge stretching that occurred on this particular journey was remarkable to observe throughout the day.

We spent our day in rain and shine, sun and shade, as the girls successfully flipped a small tarp with everyone on it, lifted each other over ropes, circled the Labyrinth blindfolded, jumped over swinging ropes, and practiced their collaboration and problem solving skills through many different lenses.

An especially rich discussion occurred during our Leadership Quadrant challenge, during which we organized ourselves based on our innate leadership styles. Some of us were green leaders- the relationship masters who are all about collaboration. Others were red leaders- the commanders and controllers who, when a task needs to be accomplished, will do it, and do it now! Others in the group were yellow leaders- the visionaries who want to get the work done but have fun in the process. Finally, some girls saw themselves as blue leaders- the analytical, calculated leaders who might observe from afar but will do the task and do it right!



Ask your daughter what leadership styles she saw in herself? Which leadership styles challenge her the most? 

We concluded a fun, active, and both mentally and physically exhausting day with our Closing Circle, offering an Attitude of Gratitude and acknowledgement for something we learned about the group or ourselves.

Our words of the day? Mud, Games, Team Building, Suave Squad!

To view the full album of the day, click here.

Mottos especially alive today: Safety First, Stretch Your Edge, Widen the Circle, Collaborate and Compromise, Build Bridges Not Walls, We're All Teachers, Challenge By Choice

Shelter Building in 100 Acre Woods

Welcome to "The Hillside Mansion"! Though it's a bit of a hike in, the views are stunning and this A-frame structure accommodates three quite comfortably. Down yonder you'll find the "Fave Cave", a comfortable single-room abode with a personal outdoor throne beside the front door. You might also enjoy a mud bath during your stay here- Just beware, you'll surely be joined by the "Mud Butts" who have been known to meet in ceremony here.

Wander back up the hill and you'll find a hidden and unnamed dwelling. A new subdivision has been developed in Fairhaven, using sustainable "green" construction methods and materials. No, these state of the art residences are not for sale, BUT! they are open for viewing in the Hundred Acre Woods. The talented architects and construction crew? The Trilliums!

We began our day in opening circle discussing the realities of wilderness survival, reviewing the Survival Rule of Fours and the rule of threes to remember how long you can survive without each (ask your daughter what the four survival priorities are and in what order...). On this day we focused on the survival priority of shelter, learning how imperative a properly insulating shelter is for surviving even a single night in the woods. On this chilly day we also discovered how useful the shelter construction process is in keeping bodies moving and warm!

Our first focus of the day was to put on shelter eyes, traveling up the trail and seeking nooks and crannies that could be or become a shelter for different sizes and types of animals. After a snack and shelter story from Tom Brown, we took a cue from the squirrels, who build nests with sticks and insulate them with leaves, and let their designs inspire our own natural shelters, which were built in the classic "debris hut" style. Our community dwellings sprung up from the forest floor, and within a few hours we had three deluxe shelters! On this super cold day, building shelters kept us warm, and that was a big bonus.  With the bit of time remaining, we played a couple rounds of Spiders Web, and did a Peaceful Place to calm our minds for a little while and take in the sounds and sights of this beautiful forest.

Finally, we hiked to a Closing Circle spot where we did acknowledgements of one another and shared the many connections we had formed throughout our season together. The girls spoke from their hearts, contributing gratitude and acknowledgements of the group as a whole for the support, laughter, connection, and positive, spontaneous, vibrant energy that radiates whenever the Trilliums come together. There were heartfelt words exchanged, and tears of both joy and sadness as we acknowledged one of our group members, Bailey K, for which Sunday's outing marked her last with GEC, though she will forever be a part of the Trillium family. We closed with our words of the day: Mud, Shelter, Spiders Web!

You may view the slideshow from our day here. 

EC MOTTOS that came into play today: Many Hands Make Light Work, All Things Are Connected, LIBK, Be Prepared, Get Dirty! Leave No Trace

Trillium / Silverwing Bat Exploration & Service at Larrabee State Park: 11-5-16

Our shared Saturday was a day where so many teachable moments collided: about assumptions ("it's going to rain all day and we'll all be soaked" - it didn't and we weren't), expecting the unexpected, being prepared, flexibility, going with the flow, serving where we saw the need, being present with process, accepting what is, and not labeling/judging experiences as good or bad.

As you likely heard, the day shifted as the wind gusts picked up, and our Washington Trail Association (WTA) partners made the difficult decision that working trailside in the forest could put our safety at risk. So, following our most important motto - Safety First - we brainstormed how to Turn Problems into Possibilities. Between WTA's ideas, Larrabee ranger Amber's input and the groups intention to serve somehow, we settled on heading to Clayton Beach to live out our Leave No Trace motto. Our mission was to use our owl eyes to find and remove litter, disperse illegal fire rings, and dismantle potentially harmful log structures.

We did all that, and along our journey we also:

* Found and marveled at fungi, camouflaged amidst the autumn leaves

* Discovered a plant mysteriously growing inside a bottle, and wondered at how it came to be and thrive in there

* Walked and talked and laughed together, the Silverwing Bats and Trilliums flowing freely between and among groups - a great connection and collaboration!

* Had an in-depth discussion about leaving one's imprint on the earth via art or writing. When is it graffiti and when is it art? What about historical graffiti, like petroglyphs? How is our behavior affected when we arrive to a place - like a driftwood fort - with lots of writing/signatures; do we feel encouraged to add our own, and is this ok? What if others are defacing a place - how does Group Think play a role in how we behave? Does it make a difference if the written on object is living, eg a growing tree, or nonliving, eg a rock or driftwood? Does the medium we utilize matter, eg. charcoal vs. ball point pen vs. spray paint vs. knife? Do we need others to tell us to do or not do something like write on nature - how does our own intuition guide us? How does our Leave No Trace motto speak to all of this? If someone does leave graffiti, how can we follow up with them without making them immediately defensive or guilt-ridden? How do we feel when we're approached with accusations?

* Rolled enthusiastically down the sand hill and clambered up on sandstone perches and long logs extending over the sea

* Had an impromptu deep discussion about materialism, consumption and happiness. A discussion of micro-trash and its effects on marine ecosystems led us down a conversational path about why we buy, the feelings of anticipation and temporary fulfillment consumption offers. But all agreed that satisfied feeling soon wears off, leading to a let down and wanting of more. One person shared statistical findings that those with enough basic needs met, plus a bit more, are happiest, while those with too little OR an over-abundance tend to be less happy and content. So, if obtaining things doesn't bring happiness, we brainstormed on what does. Girls offered the following: relationships with others, connections with animals, doing art, listening to music, being in nature, exercise, reading, good conversations, challenging oneself, creating, meditation and yoga, exploring, giving to others through service, and more. All of us agreed that these things are the heart of happiness, rather than consuming and buying (and they're all free!).

Part two of the day was an effort to further connect around the welcoming warmth of a fire. A small crew headed the short distance to Aimee's house to collect firewood (and cookie dough) then met the others at an empty campsite at Larrabee. We gathered round the fire, cookie dough circles flattening and baking over the flames, and shared another lesson, about the importance of flexibility in life. We agreed that, like today, things often don't go according to plan. How can we be receptive to what is, rather than be attached to how we think things ought to be? How can we be prepared for sudden or slow change in the path we're on, Expect the Unexpected? What mindset helps? What are healthy, and unhealthy ways to respond to change? How does being present help? Then we shared a favorite EC story of "Good, Bad, Who Knows?" about an old man in ancient China who teaches us through his response to life events that every experience is an opportunity to learn and grow.

We wrapped up this memorable service/exploration with our chosen Words of the Day: Good, Bad, Who Knows?

Enjoy two slide shows from our day! One here and the other here.

Whatcom Creek Traverse 10-8-16

Well, it rained, it poured...and poured...and poured...and the Trilliums explored-living out our GEC motto, Be Prepared! Although we were sad to have less than half of our group present for this outing, the small group of 4 brought great energy and good spirits to an otherwise dreary day. We joined together for our Opening Circle at Maritime Heritage Park and assessed a soggy map to scout out our route for the day.

Though this urban trek took us out of the woods and onto pavement, it had all the elements of an adventure: enthusiastic and curious participants, a complex historical and modern story, fascinating intersections of human and natural constructs, games, lessons in empathy and more. We say The Trail is the Teacher, and this creek greenway through the city was no exception.

All of our outings seek to ground us in a sense of place. In this case, it was Maritime Heritage Park, formerly a forest so thick it was difficult to walk through, beside a beach unfilled with fill, and a creek teeming with salmon. As we set the tone for the day, we traveled between past and present: we went back to the Salish fish camp on the bay, "seeing" men in canoes, fishing with their nettle nets, women and girls picking berries, the surrounding forest teeming with life: fox, bear, cougar, mink, beaver, countless birds; understood the impact of Roeder and Peabody's choice of the falls as the site for their mill, bringing dramatic changes, including a new town called Whatcom; heard about the march of progress, human ingenuity causing numerous degradations to the creek and bay. We came to the present, and saw the juxtaposition of streamside restoration and continued degradation, of visible efforts to shift past wrongs, and also problems that persist. Beside the displaced creek we saw evidence of displaced persons, and spoke of how to project love and compassion their way rather than fear and judgment.

Here were some of the gifts of the day:

• Discussed the value of commitment and Walking Your Talk in showing up to GEC on a rainy, blustery day.

• Observed native plants along the trail, many of which were planted by the Bellingham community (and GEC girls!) for river restoration.

• Told the story of the Salmon Woman, Raven, and Little Bear at the Salmon Woman totem pole, discussing lessons about abundance, greed, and consequences.

• Discovered many hazards on salmon's journey: litter in the river, churning waterfalls, pollution, an artificially straightened creek, pipelines, and other myriad impacts of the city.

• Met up with the GEC bus, Moose, to mimic salmon being bussed over a dam – in our case, we were bussed through the most urban aspect of the stream's journey.

• Engaged with the salmon art, mostly sculpture, all along the trail. Reflected upon the inscription from one particular sculpture: "Our Simplest Wisdom is to Follow the Sea-Bright Salmon Home."

• Began to understand the creek's history by playing Oh Salmon!, which highlighted the impacts on salmon and their needs (food, water, shelter) over time.

• Asked questions with no right or easy answer: What is progress? Is it good or bad? How can our generation impact the lives of salmon and beauty of areas such as Whatcom Falls Park? How is everything connected? What can we learn from the past? Why are salmon important? How can things that seem good become bad, and vice versa?

• Worked to navigate our way along the trail using map, trail markers, common sense, local knowledge, and trail tracking games!

• Learned about many of the human characters who have shaped the creek's journey: the native inhabitants, Roeder & Peabody, the Ladies Cooperative Society, The Whatcom Park Club, the advocates for creek straightening to prevent flooding, and discussed how we can continue this great work and advocacy.

• Began to understand how All Things Are Connected by playing Oh Salmon!, which highlighted the impacts on salmon and their needs (food, water, shelter) over time.

• Had a great time tracking (and tricking) one another as we played the Tracking Game.

• Experienced the changes in landscape along the way as we discussed changes over time all along Whatcom's journey, ending with the familiar comfort of the forest ecosystem in Whatcom Falls Park.

• Enjoyed a Peaceful Place by Duck Pond at Whatcom Falls Park before heading out on a mystery bus ride! 

• Shlepped our soggy selves into a Chris's garage for a quick break with homemade hot cocoa and popcorn. We retold the story of our day and passed on lessons we had learned from our journey. 
• Ended our day with a circle of thanks, reflecting again on the words of the Lummi people: "Our Simplest Wisdom is to Follow the Sea-Bright Salmon Home." How does the story of our day tell the story of history, change, the circle of life, of salmon, and what can we learn from this journey?

Finally, a contribution from a past GEC girl, now 15, who wrote this short poem throughout the day while walking this same route along Whatcom Creek:

Life and Death

Everything struggles to survive.

Though some things live and some things die.

Even though there may be strife,

It all makes the circle of life.

If some die, yet others live,

feeding upon what the dead bodies give.

Death makes life and life makes death.

So close your eyes and enjoy your breath.

Our words of the day? "Rain, Salmon, and Stories!"

You may check out the (very minimal!) slideshow from our day here