My relationship with nature
“Dare to dream, go boldly towards your dreams and wishes. Don't go where the path leads, but go where there is no path and leave your own mark. ”
Nature is a place that has surrounded and been close to me my whole life. My childhood home is on land and on a farm. I grew up in a large farmhouse yard. The backyard offered opportunities for a wide variety of yard games. The swing attached to the trees was at our disposal for the race and it got a decent pace with which we jumped as far as possible from the swing. The pea gun war with the daisy stem and peas on the playing field formed by the farm buildings was one of my favorite games. Although our backyard was large, it wasn’t always enough for our play and play area with my siblings, cousins, and other children in the village. Near our backyard was a wooded area, where we also often headed for our clips. At the edge of the forest was a big stone that set our imagination in motion and at the foot of which we spent time in the summer. In the middle of the forest was a big and old pine tree, which we named ‘Fairytale Tree’. Beneath it was our other wooded playground. One winter, fine ice had formed in the marshland in the middle of the forest. Oh that feeling of happiness when we found it there! In the snow, wandering into a sledge hill a couple of miles away on a forest slope didn’t feel anywhere! It was great to go skiing in the nearby fields of our home and it feels like there were those snowy winters back then that skiing was a natural part of the hustle and bustle of winter.
Scouting as a hobby gave me many memorable nature experiences in my youth. That most wonderful experience was the international scout camp in the Koli landscapes. The hike there introduced us to these stunning and rugged landscapes in a truly memorable way.
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The orienteering hobby I started as a child has given its own dimension to my relationship with nature and has expanded a lot of my own nature experiences over the decades. With the help of my orienteering hobby, my husband and I have found the best berry places for blueberry and lingonberry trips. Through my husband, my own relationship with nature got a new impetus when I was over thirty. His life had already included the autumn mushroom trips in his youth. So I have been able to experience these with him myself.
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The orienteering hobby has transported me all over Finland and a bit abroad. The finest tradition has been the summer Fin-5 cross weeks with my sister's family in different parts of Finland. We always rent a common cottage near the checkered area. In this way, we have become acquainted with really great cottage landscapes and lakeside places anytime anywhere in Finland. In Ruokolahti, the yard of our rental cottage was completely destroyed by the storm with its fallen trees and broken roofs.
Our current home in Harjavalta, is naturally beautiful and diverse. The wide, lake - like Kokemäenjoki and the beautiful cloth forest of Hiittenharju form a magnificent river and forest landscape in the area.
From these experiences, my own relationship with nature has emerged. The relationship with nature is built into myself - it has always been involved in my life. I feel one with nature. Respect for nature has come to me as a blood heritage.
Man is a part of nature. If man becomes alienated from nature, whatever it is, an important element of human well-being is missing. The role of the environmental educator, in my opinion, is to shape and pass on values, attitudes and also to share knowledge of everything that helps to better understand nature and contributes to the well-being of nature and the maintenance of balance between all living things.
I have a master's degree in education. I have worked as a classroom teacher since 1989. In 2019, I completed a special vocational degree in environmental education at the Finnish Environmental Institute in Sykli.
The most important jobs related to my studies as an environmental educator are the school's environmental education plan and the school's sustainable development program.
My own nature and life path has brought me to a place where there is a suitable place to start the Nature School Tikankolo.
