by Bernheim Ranger Dick Fisher
Recently a Bernheim guest came running up to me, excited, and asked me, “ Have you seen the Spirit Nest? Can you feel its power?” I could only smile in acknowledgement as he just as quickly disappeared, but I understood his excitement and feelings.
For this Ranger, Spirit Nest provokes a remembrance of something ancient within us. Something, we are all still connected with even after thousands of years, but do not acknowledge as we may have once taken the time to do. It reveals our connection to the ground we walk, to forest resting before us, to the sky above. It pulls from within us remembrance of our true home, this planet, which we happen to call Earth. Mother Earth! She is our home. She is our nest!
Spirit Nest allows us to celebrate this connection. It connects the ancestral within us to the present through our communion with this astonishing space. Leaving us with a sense of wonder, awe and joy, while endowing us with a gift for ritual and for healing.
If you doubt what this Ranger is suggesting, perhaps all you need do is watch those children who approach the Spirit Nest running. I believe, that we would proclaim their excitement to be one of wonder, awe and joy.
Created by internationally renowned artist Jayson Fann, Spirit Nest is a uniquely Bernheim art installation is located near the Pines Picnic area in Zone 2 of the newly opened Playcosystem, a 10-acre natural playground. The interactive installation encourages free and adventurous play and doubles as an outdoor education space that brings people together for storytelling, lessons of the natural world and sharing of multi-cultural experiences.
