Finding Your Own Listening Point

The Listening Point idea is about rediscovering a sense of awe and wonder by spending time outdoors in silence and solitude. It's about experiencing a sense of connectedness with nature, and the peace and balance and even the joy that comes with it. It doesn't have to be in or near the wilderness, Sigurd said, "but some place of quiet where the universe can be contemplated with awe."

Eight people spent a week in August using Sigurd's life and writings as a springboard for discussion, music, storytelling, crafts, nature walks and other activities that explored the Listening Point idea and how to incorporate it into their daily lives. They met from August 13-19 at The Clearing, an adult school of discovery in the arts, nature and humanities located along the wooded bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan, just outside Ellison Bay, Wisconsin on the Door County Peninsula.

The workshop was called "Finding a Listening Point," and its leaders were Susan E. Fowler and David Backes (pictured). Susan, an environmental artist and educator who lives in southern Indiana, is the founder of Harmony by Hand—programs that express the arts and sciences and simplicity in a creative format that uses music, sign language, stories and sketches. Her hope is to bring to others a greater awareness of the beauty, diversity and harmony on this earth. David is Sigurd Olson's biographer and a founding director of the Listening Point Foundation. He writes and speaks on such topics as wonder, wilderness, and the human spirit, and is a professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

According to David, "Our week at The Clearing was wonderful! We bonded together quickly as a group—so much so that it was very hard to leave at the end of the week. Sig's life and ideas resonated with every person in the group in distinct ways, and to be able to not only share those things but to experience them in that beautiful natural setting by doing simple and yet powerful activities together ... well, I think it touched each of us deeply."