Transcendental Experiments

Students were asked to spend time in nature, without distraction, without companions, without technology--to just be in nature. They were encouraged to journal, draw, or write a poem or song based on their experiences. Below are some of their reflections.

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.” - Henry David Thoreau

I looked up at the light that engulfed all of me

And afar off there she stood in all of her glory

A bright gaze wrapping me in a warm blanket 

It was my first time noticing her 

The way her grace brought life to the night

With her, the leaves radiated light,

Silently swaying to the winter breeze and

Chirps of crickets filled the void she created

In the serene of that dark night

My illumination was held in that nature’s bliss

Away from heaviness of heart and worry

I beheld the beauty of the present

for I knew like all things fleeting,

she would soon fade away with the night

Forgotten and erased.

• Olamide Adekoya

Transcendental Rap, Aissa Benkhoukha

Everybody’s alive in this life but no one’s really living it

Stack those dividends, snakes keep slitherin

Cuz u not rly focused on all that at the present moment.

“Ill get to it” but you wont, and you know it.

Procrastination split the generation that im being raised in

Drown your days in work and social rankins 

Its like we were born to conform but thats not how im thinkin

But Isn't that what matters most in this world that we livin' in?

Cuz How you plan to make it to the top by just fittin' it?

And How you plan to take somebody spot by just givin' in?

How you gon' treat this like you gon' get to live again?

Take this into consideration next time you facing praise and (in)

You hate, just sayin. 

Gotta see the bigger picture. 

Whether you can show it or you tell, something is out there curating it well

Lemme tell yall a story from mon memoire de personelle

You see, I got this friend smart as heck

But he stupid as hell

He swear that God ain't real

Since there aint no way for him to prove it himself

As if the universe ain't enough

As if the volcanoes ain't erupt

As if the birds don't chirp

As if a trillion nerves don't work in the human body

man, who would I be?

Without the creator of this theater

Beside me to gently guide me?

In the end we’re all out here, simply living. 

Letting life pass us by

Yet we ask questions. 

How you gon let everything happen around you and learn a lesson?

Heres a suggestion

If you wanna find the meaning of life 

Just go outside and ask again twice

You’ll see it in the trees thats blowing degrees, 

you’ll see it in the bees thats serving their queen

Just leave your phone and keys at home  i beg you please

Just sit back in nature and simply breathe

As a cool breeze flows and it hits you with ease  GEEZ LOUISE!!

We’re all living the same life across difference seas

From guatemala, cross jamaica to the philippines

If ur ever in a dilemma mentally

Thoreau would say to go back to mother nature and she’ll agree

Be more conscious with your life. Dont hate. Be great.

“Trust Thyself: Every Heart Vibrates to That Iron String.”

The vibrato of violin rings to my core

Autumn leaves in hues of red, orange, yellow, brown

Through the silence of self, but cacophony of man

I find peace, solitude

As I walk the paved path before me

I notice the sounds of music in nature

The flap of wings

The rustle of leaves

The silent scurry of an animal

The creaking of old wood

Though nothing accompanies me but myself,

the clothes on my back, 

and my thoughts, 

I am not alone, 

There is company all around me

I visit places of my youth 

Where my perception has changed over the years

The playground swings now much larger than I

The slides once mountains, now molehills,

And instead of fear in being alone, 

I feel peace. 

Tranquility.

Autumn, season of change

After the bloom, alone

A chilling conviction of itself

Like snow

Yet passions of summer can still be found

I notice the fifth season, thought itself

Away from the struggles and strife of life

But the feeling ever present in this fast moving world

One moment of peace is enough,

A moment of reflection, 

Winter to Spring,

And the changing of youth.

• Caleb Brown

__          By Isabelle Francois

I wait for travel in the cold room

Stars paint the ceiling like a canvas

No matter how far I look into the distance, 

it’s neverending

The air feels still,

silent

Shh, 

don’t ruin this moment

I want to be engulfed in the feeling,

Of being a atom

But even after being outside,

I still feel I am within

I feel the cold,

but I have no proof

I have to believe its real,

even if no one is there

Sky looks like a picture

Sky looks like a image

But while waiting for travel

Time stops,

in the dead of night

For I am lost 

But I remain here

I wait for travel in the cold room,

without a door in sight

While in here nothing can betray me

Nothing can give me regret

Nothing can hurt me

But I still feel scared

It’s so mysterious

It’s so unknowing

Nature is unpredictable

You’re crazy!

No

You’re not crazy

You’re just misunderstood

We take over you,

Make you complex

Nature you aren’t scary

We’re scared of ourselves

Blue to white light to blue 

 - anonymous

As I step away from the blue light, I step into the white

It may be moist but it's allowing me to think 

Sitting on this wet swing 

Those annoying flies and bees are gone now

And the grass looks so pretty with an orange coat 

I don't like moist when i'm listening to Tink 

I don't like moist when i'm singing along to Ashanti

Or even when i'm dancing to TXT

But, I think I like it now 

I wonder what my boyfriend is doing 

I should've invited him over, what am I doing ?

My pants feel wet now and i’m sad

What happened to the prior light mist 

I was just  too busy worrying about my spotify playlist 

No, I was worried about my… i'm not sure 

But I need to check my phone and check on my… 

I need to check my phone 

What am I even doing outside when my phone is  in the house ?

I don't even like rain 

I'd rather take a shower under the blue light

"The surface of the earth is soft and 

impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind 

travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, 

how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!" Henry David Thoreau 

Location: The Middle of My Backyard

I’ve done something like this before. Granted, the time before I was listening to music and walking around. But being outside always makes me happy. It’s like cleaning your room. You don’t really want to take the time and organize everything, but once you finish you feel so much better about your surroundings and your mental state usually gets even a little bit better. It’s like… cleaning your brain. IT’S LIKE CLEANING YOUR BRAIN. A brain cleansing, if you will. Take out all the things that were weighing you down throughout the day/week and let it go. I guess nature can be persuaded by how we’re feeling and what’s going on for us. I mean, it all depends on perception. If you’re in a bad mood, then the weather will seem like it’s portraying your bad mood (if it’s sunny then it’s too hot; if it’s raining then it’s gloomy and sad like me; if it’s snowing then it’s too cold; etc). But when you’re in a good mood, then the weather will seem to mimic that happiness (if it’s sunny it’s bright and nice; if it’s raining - good cause I love the rain; if it’s snowing - snow day tomorrow; etc). The human mind is so weird. They’re the same scenarios, but we come up with different emotions to attach to them depending on how we’re feeling at that moment. And as we grow we’ll keep changing those perceptions about those things. While I was outside I was thinking a lot about humans and how strange we all really are. I’ve never actually thought about how I’m actually living until this past summer, and it’s really weird. It’s like a TV show character just realized they were in a show. It’s like the Truman Show when he realizes he’s the star of a show of his life. It’s odd. I don’t hate it, necessarily. I feel like I have more control over my life now. But it’s still unusual. I’m breaking away from the conformity that Thoreau was talking about in his quote. “How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!” We’re all interconnected through the highways, ruts, and traditions that we all share, and it’s only until we break free of the clutch that society holds on us that we will be able to truly find out who we are. 

• Evie Hawkins

“We can never have enough of nature.” Henry David Thoreau 

Reflection by Connor Lane

While outside alone it took me a while to feel fully immersed. Once I felt like I was, I started to think about the quote, “We can never have enough of nature”. I pondered over this and as I looked around I noticed how little nature there is surrounding us. Compared to how Emerson and Thoreau described nature, what we have now is a crumb of what they explained. 

Diverse forests are thinning,

not growing.

Wildlife dwindling,

not growing.

The air we breathe once clear,

now polluted.

The water we swim in once clear,

now polluted.

Once enjoyed by man,

now destroyed by man.

All of nature is being destroyed slowly and we wonder why. We blame global warming and other natural causes, when the real cause is man. We think we're helping fix nature, but we can’t fix nature unless everyone stops making the problem grow.

Ava Loesch

"Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry." Henry David Thoreau

11/22/23

Today, I sat outside for a little while and was present in the world around me. I thought about life now and related it to the quote I chose from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay “Nature.” We often focus on the past or the future and we never focus on the present. We waste our lives by living in such a hurry when we can just live a simple life and make the best of it without thinking of what is to come. So I wrote this poem.

The rustling of the leaves, 

The wind whistling through the trees, 

And the squirrels doing acrobats from branch to branch.

My mind races from thing to thing,

I twiddle my thumbs back and forth, and back and forth, 

While my eyes can't seem to focus on one thing.

Then all at once, the wind stops, 

The leaves all set in stone, 

The squirrels are nowhere to be seen.

The world around me takes a pause,

Its like im stuck in time,

I can only hear my heart beating.

I focus on one tree, 

It's the tree in my backyard that leans sideways, 

I watch as a leaf falls, slowly…slowly… and hits the green grass.

The wind starts to pick back up again, 

I feel a cold breeze across my face, 

And the sun comes out of the clouds.

I stand up from the chair I was seated in, 

The world around me gets brighter, 

And I walk away with a smile.

Ava Lombardo 

Journal Reflection 12/3/2023

My favorite part about this time of year is not Christmas or cozy holiday movies or snow, but the trees. I absolutely love the dead, seemingly lifeless trees that seem to remind everyone of death. To me though, they are bursting with life. The intricate webs of branches shooting and sprouting out from others, endlessly creeping up to the sky seem to calm me in some unexplainable way.

 My backyard is surrounded by trees, and while looking out at them today I noticed something I hadn’t before. I saw little lonely leaves hanging onto thin branches and swaying with the wind. It reminded me of scenes from movies where the main character is hanging off a cliff edge and scrambling to catch the hand of their savior. But these leaves do not have a savior, because they do not need one. When they fall, they will not plummet wickedly to the ground, but will gracefully glide, finding a new place to live. This brings me an odd sense of comfort. 

     I never understood why in books, the haunted house is always surrounded by these kinds of trees. It’s included in the imagery to set a foreboding and anxious mood but it just does not have that effect on me. It makes me feel calm and I genuinely find them beautiful. The quote I selected before going outside was “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.” For some reason, I am very adamant about loving these trees, and I always tell people that I like them. I have never once let other people's opinions on those trees try to bend my feelings and make me feel like I'm wrong. So for me, that iron string would be trees in the winter, and my heart just calls to it. There will never be anything that will change that.

  Transcendentalist Poem
- Clare Morrison

           “We can never get enough of nature” is a quote by Thoreau.

             This quote proved to be evident as I felt the sun’s glow.

             I felt at peace as I admired nature and its simplicity

             No distractions, no electronics, just nature and its authenticity.

             A crisp, subtle breeze and the feeling of grass below your feet are things that                 can easily be neglected.

             Now that I am taking time to admire these things, I feel so connected.

             I stood in my backyard, away from screens and gimmicks.

             Embracing nature’s beauty for 10 precious minutes.

             In these minutes, I felt a sense of renewal, like a breath of fresh air.

             I felt a sense of refreshment, as a breeze blew through my hair.

             We can never get enough of nature, whether we embrace it or not.

              For nature provides us with a sense of happiness that can not be bought.      

"I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I 

wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted 

to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily 

and Spartan-like." Henry David Thoreau

Journal Reflection

I spent around an hour outside in my backyard raking leaves to write about for this assignment, and it was like killing two birds with one stone because I was also doing a chore. For some background, not too long ago I heavily disliked spending time outside if it wasn’t playing soccer, so every time I would go to the park with my family I wouldn’t enjoy the experience and I would just look forward to it ending rather than enjoying the present moment. But now I’ve learned to appreciate the present because time seems to be going by faster now and every moment truly matters. When I first went outside to rake the leaves I was initially intimidated by the number of leaves as they essentially covered all of my backyard without many patches of grass to be seen.. I won’t lie and say that it was particularly enjoyable, especially not at first. But as time went on I began to think less about the raking of leaves and more about life. I began to think about my goals: what I wanted to accomplish before the end of junior year, college, and how grateful I was for everything that I had in my life. I’ve come to realize that when I'm in nature or simply away from technology I’m more relaxed and calm, and it’s also easier to focus on what I want to do and what needs to be done. Yet, as I’m writing this reflection I’m still tempted to just go on my phone and watch some TikTok rather than relive this enlightened feeling that I usually get in nature and away from technology. I think the reason for this is that it’s so much easier and I have become too comfortable with just going on TikTok rather than trying something new that could honestly help me out more in the long run. The good thing about writing this reflection is that it’s helping me realize that I want to change for the better and that I still have time to do so, but if I keep waiting to change then it will eventually be too late. So to tie my conclusions from my time in nature to the quote that is basically about living life to the fullest for all the things that matter but not being distracted by what doesn’t matter, I want to live a life where I go to sleep happy every day knowing that I’ve done my best and worked towards what matters.

By Chisom Nkemka

F arther and farther my gaze travels

E arth is never ending

E ndless cars drive by the street

L ooks from me follow each car

S ince I sit for what seems like ever more

O ften I feel empty during my time outside

F or why, I begin to ponder

N ature is my only friend

A s it stays with me forever

T oday I know I need to learn about our relationship

U s meaning me and nature

R egrets I feel for my love of worldly things

E ternity knows me never

"This whole earth which we inhabit is but a point in space. How far apart, think you, dwell the two most distant inhabitants of yonder star, the breadth of whose disk cannot be appreciated by our instruments? Why should I feel lonely? Is not our planet in the Milky Way?" Henry David Thoreau

"We can never have enough of nature." Henry David Thoreau 

Into the Autumn Woods

by Samantha Noble

It’s Thanksgiving Day

Sunny, beautiful, & full of holiday cheer

The autumn, crisp air 

blowing against my hair

I walk into woods

Tall trees and leaves everywhere

A few leaves left on the trees

A sign that winter is making its way

Leaves rustle as I take every step

The Childhood bird returns again

As he does every Thanksgiving since I was a kid

But other than those sounds, it’s quiet, it’s peaceful

Deer begin to pass by from ahead

Stopping to munch on the dry leaves

One stares at me and I stare at him

Wondering what it must be like to be a deer

He is a buck with giant, pointy antlers 

Protector of all deer

Especially his family 

Who he’s protecting now

Beautiful creatures of the woods

With their dark coats coming in for winter

I give a little smile

And make the rest of my way 

This breezy, cool autumn day

And these empty woods

Leaves filled with bright and dull colors everywhere

Brown, orange, yellow, green, and red

I can’t help but wonder why I don’t do this often

Nature is a beautiful, wonderful, peaceful thing

That we just pass by everyday 

As we step into our cars, without even taking a look at beauty

The bright colors in the world that Nature brings us

Torn apart by construction & ignored, but those bits continue to shine in the sun’s light

We take for granted 

And let it die

Touch and see nature once a day

Connect with yourself

Touch a tree, visit the woods, walk along a path, listen to the sounds of the river

Because we can never have enough of nature.

ONE PAGE JOURNAL
by Leslie Summiel

The cold wind embraced me as I stepped onto the track, a brisk companion in the symphony of elements that awaited. The scent of grass and the promise of a winter morning danced through the air, setting the stage for a run that would be both invigorating and serene. With each lap around the track, my breath mingled with the chilly air, creating a visible testament to the fusion of effort and nature. The rhythm of my footsteps echoed in harmony with the wind, as if the track itself were a percussion instrument in a grand, natural orchestra. The cold, rather than hindering my progress, became a motivator, a reminder that every stride was a triumph over the chill that sought to slow me down. As I picked up the pace, the warmth generated from within created a stark contrast to the cool touch of the wind. Sweat began to bead on my forehead, a tangible expression of the energy expended in the pursuit of movement. Each droplet, glistening in the early morning light, mirrored the sun's ascent, turning my run into a dance between the warmth of exertion and the crisp embrace of the winter air. The sunlight, filtered through the branches of the trees that lined the track, cast a golden hue on the scene. It painted a picture of contrasts – the vibrant green of the grass against the muted tones of the winter sky, the warmth on my skin juxtaposed with the cool breeze that played with my hair. The trees stood as silent spectators, their bare branches reaching towards the heavens, a testament to the beauty of nature's cycles. The track itself became a canvas, with each lap a brushstroke in the masterpiece of my morning run. The sound of my breathing and the cadence of my footsteps blended seamlessly with the rustling leaves and the occasional chirping of birds, creating a tranquil melody that accompanied my journey. I felt a profound connection to the world around me, a participant in the grand performance of life unfolding in the quietude of the morning. As I completed my final lap, the sweat on my face stood as a badge of honor, a tangible reminder of the physical and mental strides made on the track. The cold wind, the sunlight, the trees – each element had played a role in this harmonious blend of effort and nature. I stood, catching my breath, in awe of the beauty that surrounded me, grateful for the privilege of experiencing the magic of a winter morning run.

"Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or 

three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half 

a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail." Henry David Thoreau 

I heavily agree with this quote because if you live life and keep your own experiences, thoughts and feelings to yourself you are bound to live happier because there are less prying eyes, less unnecessary opinions and less negativity that will hinder or cause you to become your worst self.

A couple years ago I didn’t understand the value of having few close friends because I was someone who liked having multiple people around me because I thought the more friends the better. However, there would be instances where I’d have friends who would take my personal information for granted and use it against me during disagreements, to put me down or to just talk about me behind my back. I’d have friends that would constantly judge the decisions I’d make because they didn’t agree with it or thought it was stupid. I’d have friends that would tell other people about me especially people I don’t get along with because of other issues and it would end up creating bigger issues.

I also learned to appreciate this quote because of my mom. Ever since I could understand the relationships between family members, especially when it comes to her, I finally realized why she keeps to herself and why she keeps the conversations about herself to a minimum when it comes to family. I’ve learned that family isn’t the safest place you can confide in because they can take your own personal information and gossip or judge you. Some members would even try to control you based on their own judgment of you and your life by thinking “you’re too stupid” or “you don’t know how to do this”.

Therefore, I believe in simplicity and privacy when it comes to my life, my experiences and my thoughts. The less opinions and negativity, the better.

“Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.”—Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton,and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood." Ralph Waldo Emerson

The location I chose was outside of Shoprite in Pennington while waiting for my brother to pick me up. I was waiting for about 10 minutes. While a lot of my thoughts while waiting were about how cold and sad it was outside, I still got to thinking. Sometimes being misunderstood is a good thing. When you are trying to do something new and inventive, of course not everyone is going to get it. But the feeling of being misunderstood is not great. The constant feeling of being judged by other people. It's like  a long feeling of paranoia. Like, you may not see the judgment,or it may not even be there, but you still feel it. But I guess there is a difference between being misunderstood and feeling misunderstood. Feeling misunderstood can make me feel a little pretentious. Like I’m trying to make myself seem like the most hated person in the world. It may sound like thinking this way is going to make you feel terrible, but there is some sick kick that you can get out of feeling like an outcast. Thinking that people don’t understand you because you’re so much smarter than them. Which is not the worst thing in the world, but the way you think can affect the way you act. I try not to think like this because I would like to stay humble, But I feel like my brain already does a good job of making me feel humbled. It’s so weird, forcing yourself to be humble. Whenever you start to praise yourself for something positive, you start being negative towards yourself because you don't want your head to get too big. Anyways, I like to think of myself as misunderstood. I have a lot of things in my head that I find really hard to vocalize sometimes. I find myself stuttering a lot because I try to get all the thoughts and words out at once. I would try to talk slower, but I feel like I sound dumb when I try to do that. So it’s like I’m misunderstood figuratively and literally. I do a lot of things that people don’t understand. I listen to music differently, I consume media in general differently from everyone else. This is why I love music so much. I can convey a story I want to tell however I want, and as long as it sounds good, people are going to listen and like it. That's why there are a lot of songs with deeper meanings that people don’t even realize because the songs are so catchy. I really want to learn a bunch of different instruments. In Mr. Price's music appreciation class he showed us a video of Ben Folds Five performing their song “Philosophy”. Not only do I love the song, but I really liked the way Ben Folds was playing very complicated riffs while singing. I started learning piano because of it. I don’t know what instrument I will learn next, most likely drums. The freedom that music gives is so great, but it’s so hard to write a song from scratch. That's the one downside, if I can't even get my thoughts out to even speak, how can I even write a song? Well, I did. It’s not my favorite, but it's a start. I never used to have a problem with my speech when I was younger, I don't know what's happening now.