Field Notes are small snippets of enchanting moments of everyday life, enchantment from the field. They are enchantment research, or (re)enchanting research, or (re)searching enchantment. They are an entanglement of observations, intuition, and messages from deep listening.
Research, which is fundamentally about following curiosity, can become disenchanted, overly formalized and sterilized, placed on a pedestal, removed from life. We are all researching all the time, and we can all be researchers. (Re)enchanting research is a call to return research to our everyday lives and to follow our wonder, curiosity, questions, and awe, to listen deeply to our intuition and messages that arise when we get quiet enough to hear. These field notes are an experiment and I invite you to join me in (re)enchanting research.
#1. The earth wants us to sing to her.
#2 The earth wants and needs us to recalibrate our nervous systems to hers (which is also ours).
Elaborations:
#1. The earth wants us to sing to her.
I feel this deeply every time I sit near a river. Maybe it is because rivers sing. But in my bones, that is what I feel called to do when I am near a river or flowing water.
When I was writing an article recently about (re)enchanting education, I was researching the etymology of enchantment, which is from French (via Latin) and which means to sing into. The roots of enchantment are singing into things.
To practice enchantment, or (re)enchantment, is to sing into things, to offer them our songs.
Try it. It doesn’t need to be a river. It could be a house plant or your pet cat. Sing as an offering. It doesn’t matter if you know how to sing or if you have a “good voice.” You have a voice and that is good. Use it to sing to the earth. She wants us to. She wants us to remember that’s what we used to do.
Maybe it is more of a singing-back, a call-and-response. She is singing to us always, in birdsong and insect chirps and rain patter and bubbling water. She is singing always and wants us to return the song. To harmonize.
#2 The earth wants and needs us to recalibrate our nervous systems to hers (which is also ours).
She also wants us to remember how to recalibrate our nervous systems to hers because hers is ours and we will be much less destructive and much better companions if we can do that.
When we arrived at La Carolina Lodge next to the Rio Chimuria in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, I felt my nervous system immediately begin to settle, supported by the rush of the river, and the cacophony of bird and insect song. It was a healing sound bath, drowning out the unnecessary noise and static both inside and outside.
The earth needs us to remember this. She needs us to recalibrate and remember. To imagine and remember that our nervous system (and all other systems) extends way beyond our little bodies and is part of a larger whole. To harmonize our nervous system with hers so that we can attune to ourselves as earthly organisms and the biointelligence available within us.
May these field notes assist or inspire you in finding some enchantable moments in yours.
(Re)enchanting research questions for your consideration:
Follow your enchantment. Where does it take you? Take notes.
What is capturing your attention? Wonder? Awe? Curiosity?
What was a moment when you felt enchanted this week? Can you dwell there and write down everything you can remember about feelings, sensations, five senses?
Sing to the earth.
Listen to the songs the earth is singing right now. What songs can you hear? What is the call, and how might you respond? (There is no right answer.)
"Re)enchanting research is a call to return research to our everyday lives and to follow our wonder, curiosity, questions, and awe, to listen deeply to our intuition and messages that arise when we get quiet enough to hear." Beautiful!