I can’t say how grateful I am that it happens to be spring in this corner of the world while the pandemic rages. I don’t know that the people around me, myself included, would be handling the stay-at-home orders as well if it were cold and dark, and we had to stay inside. Getting outdoors has always lifted my spirits, but it seems that spending time in the natural world–whether it be walking, cycling, gardening, or sitting on the porch–is what is helping to keep all of us more sane and balanced.
Since completing my training in ecotherapy, more than ever before I am convinced that our emotional, spiritual, and physical health is intricately linked to our connection with the natural world. Wisdom teachers have always known of this interconnection, but there is also ample scientific evidence to support this relationship between humans and the natural world, and some doctors are even now prescribing forest-bathing and other time spent in green space as medicine for their patients. It is no wonder that so many of us live with chronic stress, anxiety, and depression when our lives have been so out of harmony with what nurtures us as humans. Access to healthy food, access to green space and fresh air, and time to connect with ourselves, others, and the sacred outdoors is absolutely vital to our well-being.
“We often forget that WE ARE NATURE.
Nature is not something separate from us. So that when we say that we’ve lost our connection to nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves.”
– Andy Goldsworthy, nature artist
So especially during this time in our history, when there is much uncertainty about our health, our plans, our jobs and our finances, I am hoping that the human species allows this “global pause” to be an invitation to what many of us have long forgotten: that we are intricately connected to all living things and that nurturing that connection will sustain us, not just in “getting through this,” but will sustain our well-being as a species and a planet.
Today I’d like to share “The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry. Click here to listen to Wendell’s reading.
“The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
