How Fire Tending Translates to Caring for Yourself and Others

by | Mar 22, 2021

 “Your own fire, your spirit. We all carry a piece of that sacred fire within us. We have to honor it and care for it. You are the firekeeper.”- Robin Wall Kimmerer

 At Aishling Forest School, we know that from the outside looking in, the design seems quite simple and it’s intended to, as mentors work diligently to create a container where nature is the greatest teacher to connect learners to themselves, each other and mama earth. Through reflection, observations and careful planning by the mentors, learners are able to become their own firekeepers and to learn holistically at their own pace. The benefits of this holistic, learner-led approach can be transferred to the classroom where learners are found to be more motivated and able to concentrate more effectively. Some additional researched benefits of Forest School include: 

  • Learners are more physically active

During forest school sessions, learners are significantly more physically active than they are at regular school, and their activity is both more intense and more prolonged. Physical activity from outdoor play can in turn contribute to healthier lifestyles and better motor skills.

  • They play more imaginatively

Nature is the perfect setting for dramatic play and abounds with open-ended play materials like pine cones, rocks, sticks, logs, sand and leaves that encourage children’s imaginations to run wild. These creative skills are essential for problem-solving and succeeding at school and life later. Also, natural spaces are not gender coded, which encourages boys and girls to play together and helps promote gender equity.

  • They don’t fidget

At forest school, active children are easily able to burn off excess energy, which can be particularly beneficial to children with ADHD. Researchers have also found that nature has a soothing, restorative effect that makes it easier for children to focus in a natural area or after spending time in one. And the more natural the area, the stronger the effect.

  • They become better at judging risk

Children who are allowed to take risks in nature, for example by climbing trees, using tools and being near fire, naturally learn how to manage those risks. Risky play is also believed to nurture adventurousness and cultivate resilience and self-reliance, both traits that can help children overcome challenges.

  • They develop a desire to protect nature

Children who spend time in nature have a better understanding of how it works and become emotionally attached to it. Several researchers have showed that this makes them more likely to want to protect nature later in life.

By working with fire and the concept of fire-keeping, we are creating a community that works together to maintain not only their own internal fires but also the fires that warm us as a community.  Community is at the heart of what we do and we embody this by starting every session with a Community Meeting, where we call in the four cardinal directions. When we do this ritual, we simply have the learners acknowledge the location of North, East, South, and West, and we call in the traditional associations to each direction and pay gratitude to each element; North is Earth, East is Air, South is Fire, West is Water, and the center is Spirit and ancestors.

This week felt a little different, maybe because the cold temperatures and whistling winds that kept us out of the forest and had us spend more time circling around the fire, but there was a surge in a united sense of community amongst our learners. We have consciously been seeking to encourage this feeling, however it has almost come innately this season as we all are working our way through the global pandemic. Many caregivers fret that children will be “behind” due to these circumstances, but in reality they are going to be so much more ahead of where we are once they come into adulthood. These experiences have been extremely difficult, no doubt, but it has taught our children the importance of compassion for their community members. We are indeed creating a more compassionate and empathetic generation.

Spending so much time around the fire gave our learners much time to communicate, discuss thoughts, feelings, jokes and more. They also came together in practicing the ancient way of “fire keeping”, or tending the hearth, which easily translates to: tending to the community. Each blustery, chilly day, one “firekeeper” was selected to lead and each learner will have the opportunity to be a firekeeper this season. We learn what a fire needs; oxygen, fuel, and spark. Our learners also learned that working with fire is a conversation, a process rather than a product. It’s a conversation where you watch, you listen, and you learn what the fire needs from you and what you need from the fire. Too much wood can smother a fire, too little and it will burn out. This concept is translated to life, as we explain that the most important fire to tend to is that fire inside their hearts, which needs to be tended to each and every day. The firekeeper’s job is also to encourage the other learners to collect, break down, and organize firewood gathered from the forest edge. The firekeeper then selects how much firewood must be put on, at what time, and placed in what position. All the learners had great fun on this firewood hunt! Some carried bundles in their arms, others used the play wagon, and some even dragged gigantic branches out! It was a team effort and all were happy to work together for the goal of a warm fire to keep themselves and their friends warm on such chilly days.

Here we see it, so evident to us mentors as we look upon and smile fondly from afar, that these learners are not simply tending to a fire, but also to their community. Here they learn the lesson of coming together, of unity, of a greater goal, and simply of compassion. We close out our fire circles with a Fire Closing Celebration where each learner passes around a small bucket filled with water, proudly shares what they are grateful for, and pours the water slowly extinguishing the communal hearthfire. It all comes full circle; we pay gratitude to earth, air, fire, water, and spirit with each morning’s opening circle and our learners slowly begin to grasp the deep importance of gratitude for each element as we bathe in the warmth of fire, warming up our little fingers and toes, sipping on hot tea, howling like wolves, and laughing all the way. Thank you South, Thank you Fire.

Some Nature Connection prompts you can bring home this week include:

  1. Searching for first signs of spring together. Noticing the small buds on the ground or on the trees. Wonder what they have been doing all winter and how it must feel to now reach skyward.
  2. Make your own fires and ask your little to be a firekeeper. At Forest School, our fire rules include no running around the fire or placing anything in the fire without asking an adult. Talk about the role of the firekeeper: to keep the fire’s energy alive, to keep the community warm and most importantly to tend to the fire inside their hearts, each and every day. What might that look and feel like for them? Close out the fire with a Fire Circle Celebration where you each express gratitude as you slowly pour water over the fire before passing the bucket along.
  3. If you don’t have access to a fire pit or fireplace, using a steel bowl or small cup can work too to create what we call “fairy fires.” Collect some kindling bundles of dry grass together and work together to use matches to see what kind of kindling swallows the fire the longest. Make sure long hair is tied back and wonder together what and why some types of grass burn longer than others.

 

 

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