When the pandemic put the kibosh on our normal lives, people found various outlets to pass the time and help cope. Some Marie Kondo’d their way through decades of unworn clothes and knickknacks. Friends around the world connected and reconnected by phone, FaceBook, Instagram, and in Zoom rooms. Some bibliophiles polished off their “TBR” stack. Newly minted bakers rose (ahem) to the sourdough challenge.
Me? I sought solace in nature…literally and literarily.
I was solo, but not entirely alone. Like me, many people flocked to the great outdoors to escape our surreal, changed environments.
I had read “Forest Bathing” shortly before our world turned upside down and would soon appreciate how much truth it contains. Turning to nearby hiking haunts, I reveled in the deep sigh of calm I breathed with even a short respite among the (then) nascent foliage.
Written by physician and researcher Dr. Qing Li, the book describes the therapeutic Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, the physiology and philosophy of how when we spend time among trees, it improves our health, happiness and well-being with better mood and attention, lower cortisol levels, and stronger immune systems. Not bad for a walk in the park, as the saying goes.
Although the book contains plenty of scientific research, it isn’t a dry academic work. Instead, in plain language, it explores the art and science behind the stress-reducing nature of Nature. Its 100+ photographs of world’s beautiful forests are a bonus “ommm” to the narrative.
It is not always possible to get a dose of nature in the flesh when we need it, but thankfully words, like those in these Wendell Berry poems, can fill our mind’s eye and magically find their way to our spirit.
“The Peace of Wild Things”
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.
-Wendell Berry
“Go Among Trees And Sit Still”
I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
Around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
Where I left them, asleep like cattle…
Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
And the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.
-Wendell Berry
Peace
To read more on the wonder of trees, check out this post:
