Questions for Reflection

What do you notice and what have you learned about your home terrain-- both in your neighborhood and in your mind?

(This list of questions is not comprehensive; it is meant to offer you an occasion to reflect on what you pay attention to, on the scope of your awareness of your home territory.)

If you think of questions which might inspire others to broaden or deepen their awareness of their home terrains, send those questions to me. From time to time, I will add new entries to my list. B.G.

1)    What are the names of your human neighbors?
2)    What countries or areas of the U.S. do these people or their ancestors come from?
3)    If there are people in your neighborhood who do not appear to have homes, where do you think they sleep? Where do they eat?
4)    Can you name other animal neighbors? Where do they sleep?
5)    Can you name five resident and five migratory birds in your area?

6)     Where does the water you drink come from?
7)     Where does the garbage go?
8)     When have there been fires in your area?
9)     When have there been earthquakes? What causes the earthquakes?
10)   How many days until the moon is full?
11)   What direction do winter storms come from?
12)   What creeks flow through your area? Are there any that are now culverted?
13)   Which way is North from where you are right now?

14)     Name some grasses in your area. Are any of them native?
15)     Name five native plants.
16)     Name three native trees.
17)     What spring wildflower is consistently among the first to in your bloom where you live

18) What do you know about the geological evolution of your area?
19) Who were the indigenous peoples in your area?
20) What were the primary subsistence techniques of the indigenous people?
21) Who lived in your house or apartment before you? Who built it and when?
22) What other animals lived in your area in the past? What happened to them?
23) What species have become extinct?
24) What ways has the landscape changed in the last 200 years?

     25) What toxic emissions do you know about in your area?
     26) What chemicals are in the emissions from the freeway?
     27) Are there factories, oil refineries, laboratories nearby? What do they
            release into the air, soil and groundwater?

28) What have you noticed recently about your own "inner weather"?
29) Could you trace the way your own moods and receptivities have fluctuated since this morning?
30) What tingling, tightness, aches, numbness, places of ease or joy have you been noticing in your body since this morning?
31) If you wake up your senses right now, what do you notice?

Note: Some of these questions were adapted from "Where you At?-- A Bioregional Quiz" compiled by Leonard Charles, Jim Dodge, Lynn Milliman, Victoria Stockley on pp. 29-30 in Home: A Bioregional Reader (New Society Publishers, 1990).