This summer five students and one trip leader at traveling along the Connecticut River to develop an intellectual, emotional, and embodied understanding of this watershed as both a socio-ecological entity and a metaphor for something larger–a paradigm for living well in a place wherever we go. Please enjoy this next blog post from Nikita ’27 where she reflects on “Is a river alive”? Before the group left Deerfield, Trip leader, Ms. Goodale asked students to respond to this prompt, which is the title of a book by Robert Macfarlane.
Is a river alive?
The tide swells and falls, reflecting the mood of the day. I breath in, and it’s waters reflect the pink and gold tones of the sunrise. A breath out, and in the still waters I see the silhouette of the hills. Standing on a sandbar, each wave lapping against my feet is the river, mapping out each crevice of the lands, seeing without eyes. An entity too large for most of us to fathom, the river breathes and in this breathe is life.
– Nikita ’27
