<![CDATA[Healing Outdoors

<![CDATA[Healing Outdoors - Posts]]>Mon, 18 Mar 2024 15:21:52 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Gathering of Facebook Posts]]>Wed, 06 Jan 2016 21:17:14 GMThttps://www.healingoutdoors.org/posts/gathering-of-facebook-postsI am bidding my personal Facebook page goodbye for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately, this means any Facebook group I set up will vanish as well. To that end, I am gathering some of the posts in one spot here to live in posterity. You can reach me at eyesandhands@gmail.com or via the Contact tab on this page. I continue to collect your kind notes and email addresses, and will send out a group notice should any future offerings happen via Healing Outdoors.

National Geographic - This is Your Brain on Nature
(for those with TV: Sunday, January 10th Nat Geo Channel)

Center for Humans and Nature - Questions for a Resilient Future

Homebody Holistics - Kinder cleaning products

Poetry at Seattle Children's Hospital - Poetry's Healing Power

Transformational Eco-Psychology, Southwestern College, Santa Fe, NM

Above Iliama - 5 minutes of beauty, salmon runs Lake Iliama, Alaska

Return of the River - Documentary trailer

"A simple branch of cherry blossom, the shell of a snail or the wing of a bat – all bear witness to the Earth’s masterful creativity. Every advance in our scientific understanding deepens our admiration and love for this wondrous planet. When we can truly see and understand the Earth, love is born in our hearts. We feel connected. That is the meaning of love: to be at one.

Only when we’ve truly fallen back in love with the Earth will our actions spring from reverence and the insight of our interconnectedness. Yet many of us have become alienated from the Earth. We are lost, isolated and lonely. We work too hard, our lives are too busy, and we are restless and distracted, losing ourselves in consumption. But the Earth is always there for us, offering us everything we need for our nourishment and healing: the miraculous grain of corn, the refreshing stream, the fragrant forest, the majestic snow-capped mountain peak, and the joyful birdsong at dawn."
Thich Nhat Hanh

http://greenribbonforclimate.org/

This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless,
Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done,
Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best,
Night, sleep, death and the stars.
~ Walt Whitman

In Praise of the Earth
by John O'Donohue
Let us bless
The imagination of the Earth,
That knew early the patience
To harness the mind of time,
Waited for the seas to warm,
Ready to welcome the emergence
Of things dreaming of voyaging
Among the stillness of land.
And how light knew to nurse
The growth until the face of the Earth
Brightened beneath a vision of color.
When the ages of ice came
And sealed the Earth inside
An endless coma of cold,
The heart of the Earth held hope,
Storing fragments of memory,
Ready for the return of the sun.
Let us thank the Earth
That offers ground for home
And holds our feet firm
To walk in space open
To infinite galaxies.
Let us salute the silence
And certainty of mountains:
Their sublime stillness,
Their dream-filled hearts.
The wonder of a garden
Trusting the first warmth of spring
Until its black infinity of cells
Becomes charged with dream;
Then the silent, slow nurture
Of the seed's self, coaxing it
To trust the act of death.
The humility of the Earth
That transfigures all
That has fallen
Of outlived growth.
The kindness of the Earth,
Opening to receive
Our worn forms
Into the final stillness.
Let us ask forgiveness of the Earth
For all our sins against her:
For our violence and poisonings
Of her beauty.
Let us remember within us
The ancient clay,
Holding the memory of seasons,
The passion of the wind,
The fluency of water,
The warmth of fire,
The quiver-touch of the sun
And shadowed sureness of the moon.
That we may awaken,
To live to the full
The dream of the Earth
Who chose us to emerge
And incarnate its hidden night
In mind, spirit, and light.

Thinking
By Ryokan
(1758 - 1831)

Now that all thoughts have subsided
off I go, deep into the woods,
and pick me
a handful of shepherd's purse.
Just like the stream
meandering through mossy crevices
I, too, hushed
become utterly clear.

Interbeing
by Thich Nhat Hanh

The sun has entered me.
The sun has entered me together with the cloud and the river.
I myself have entered the river,
and I have entered the sun
with the cloud and the river.
There has not been a moment
when we do not interpenetrate.
But before the sun entered me,
the sun was in me--
also the cloud and the river,
I was already in it
There has not been a moment
when we have not inter-been.
Therefore you know
that as long as you continue to breathe,
I continue to be in you.

]]><![CDATA[Letting It Be]]>Mon, 28 Sep 2015 05:04:46 GMThttps://www.healingoutdoors.org/posts/letting-it-be

I am letting Healing Outdoors be for a while until I know what steps to take next to grow this project. I have emails from several people around the world who are interested in creating similar projects where they live, asking for my advice. I would absolutely love to be in a position to give advice and collaborate among all of us and do something truly powerful. I just don't know given my time and resources, how I can commit to coordinating this and have had little success signing up people for walks to allow me to practice nature connection exercises I have learned.

Grateful to anyone who has followed along or checked out the site and received any sense of nature connection that moves me so deeply. Grateful to all who have resonated with some piece of the vision: Caregiver support and nature connection for the disconnected. I hope and trust anyone who is attracted to this kind of inspiration continues to seek it for themselves. To make a difference in your own stress reduction and gain perspective from reminding yourself of your place in the scheme of the natural world.

When my daughter was very ill for several years, time in nature was my solace and life raft. Healing Outdoors was my vision to share this with others facing a similar journey. The further along my journey of recovery from posttraumatic stress (or posttraumatic growth), I have come to understand certain aspects of my personality, my strengths, and my less-than strengths.

I would like to wish that I am meant for a leadership role, or that I have the understanding of a psychologist or a nature-based healer to act as a bridge between nature and people and help others in some way. I simply don't know yet whether any of this is true. Certainly I have helped myself by doing the activities I do.

I have studied and/or observed models of nature-mind "bridges" and have read widely in the field of ecopsychology. A frustration in my ecopsychology courses was being the only student without an active counseling practice to gather people to try activities with and hence gain experience doing what I'd like to do. I have no psychology degree and am certified only by life experience. I have come to realize:

My connection to the natural world is deeply personal and may not apply to everyone.
I would love to practice facilitating people experiencing space/time in nature for themselves but I am not an "expert."
I have no desire to charge large sums of money to lead groups of people to their birthright.
I would thrive in a job that takes me outdoors.
I am a greater support person and/or independent worker than a leader.

I will continue to make nature connection a part of my daily practice of being human. I was accepted to an Environmental Conservation degree program this year but was unable to financially make it work. I keep my eyes out for further training opportunities wherever they may present themselves and focusing my energies on all good that arises. Every moment, every day, every year.

]]><![CDATA[Tree Conversation]]>Thu, 10 Sep 2015 15:40:22 GMThttps://www.healingoutdoors.org/posts/tree-conversation

Conversation with a tree? Yes. Spending time with my favorite mossy maple at the Whidbey Institute, I listened for 30 minutes and wrote down tree wisdom. Whether we choose to believe this wisdom is our own imagination or transmitted from a tree into human language is irrelevant to the relevance of the understanding we glean.

You appear to be three trees merged above ground or one tree divided three ways growing toward the sun and rain. You have stood a long time. Many mushrooms ring your base and tiny umbrellas sprout from your mossy skin. You thrive here drinking in swampy goodness collected from the skies.

I love the shape of your leaves, like human hands spread out, receptive to gifts from above.

Q: What do you have to tell me about how to be in this life when I feel I'm living the wrong one?

A: I stand tall because I understand how to work with Earth, bend with air, let limbs and leaves go when necessary. The network you can't see below ground bathes my roots, supports my existence. I stand tall and stand witness. I shelter any being who comes to rest with me.

I split three ways to serve more beings, feed my core, gather more sunbeams.

Might you never forget to stand your ground even as you sit in front of your computer screen moving your branches across the alphabet lightning quick. Your scrabbling at the keys sounds like brown squirrels squabbling.

Remember to stand, even as you must sit. Remember the power inside your core even as your ears ring from listening. Remember to replenish from your roots, your connection to Earth.

These rememberings will not fail you.

Money does not matter to Earth, except what is destroyed in its name. How is it you spend so much energy tending to it?

Don't forget to stretch your limbs upward like my leafy palms and celebrate the wind.

]]><![CDATA[Nature Connection, Cancer, and Family Support]]>Thu, 20 Aug 2015 00:45:17 GMThttps://www.healingoutdoors.org/posts/nature-connection-cancer-and-family-support

fall_team_news_-_week_11.pdf
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My worlds collide today! Healing Outdoors is featured in the attached Team in Training newsletter.

Should you feel moved to support families facing blood cancers via my marathon training for the Portland Marathon in October 2015, I invite you to go here:

Erin's Marathon For Families Facing Blood Cancers

A great training hill for me

]]><![CDATA[No Naming]]>Wed, 29 Jul 2015 15:29:35 GMThttps://www.healingoutdoors.org/posts/no-naming"I've been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name"
~ America

One fast route to expanded awareness is to go somewhere you find attractive and ask, "What are you without a name?" Then wait a few minutes for an answer. You might be amazed by what you learn. You can ask this question of yourself, other people, a tree, any animal, any plant, any rock.

***

Dr. Michael J. Cohen writes in Reconnecting With Nature, p.215:

The "Law of the Nameless" incorporates and respects the wholeness of the nameless and every aspect of billions of years of our creative, evolving life process and spirit, which we and Earth manifest.

Uniquely, the Law of the Nameless holds true for all members of the plant, animal, and mineral kingdoms. It states that at any given moment:

Everything desires to be.
Natural attractions interconnect everything.
Natural attraction relationships build stability.

***

You may not realize until you try this activity how strongly we are attached to observing the world around us through the filter of its name. Our technology keeps us uber focused on words, often side-stepping direct sensory experience. I have made a living for almost 25 years by capturing people's words and proofreading them. Words constantly swim in my mind.

What intense relief to be free of words and glean the true nature of things! Try it. You might experience your world an entirely new way.

]]><![CDATA[Guided Imagery]]>Tue, 28 Jul 2015 04:27:56 GMThttps://www.healingoutdoors.org/posts/guided-imagerySettle yourself on the ground. Sense Earth's gravitational pull. Close your eyes. Sense your blood pumping as part of all the mineral and fluid cycles of wherever you live. Just as your blood flows through you, water is the Earth's blood. Notice your breathing and observe its natural rhythm. Know that all the oxygen you and all animal beings are breathing in at this moment is a gift of green plants, as they breathe in carbon dioxide given off by you and all animals. Open your eyes and give gratitude to anything among the living green.

As you breathe in air and wind flowing over Earth's body, close your eyes. Notice your muscles as they feel ready to move and they relax more deeply, thanking the Sun for their source of energy. Open your eyes and notice sunlight, which is present even on a cloudy day. Slowly stand up and root your feet into the Earth. Walk slowly around your space, your feet kissing the ground with each step.

Know that everything you see will return to the Earth.

]]><![CDATA[Crystal Clear Day and Plan]]>Sun, 01 Mar 2015 20:40:03 GMThttps://www.healingoutdoors.org/posts/crystal-clear-day-and-planNo doubt about it. If my life circumstances require me to forego vacations, I am truly compensated by living in a region that looks like a postcard.

I had a rare day without teen or work, and the weather happened to be stunning. I soaked up the sun's energy, meditating on a bench, absorbing gratitude in every winter-indoor skin cell and every pore.

In my spiritual practice, I have been working with removing armor from my heart, embracing huge sadness I experience instead of turning away from it or fearing I should be medicated. This day was like that - spontaneous great sadness welling up while at the same time fully holding the beauty and sun.

In the dark of evening, these words from Pema Chodron's "The Wisdom of No Escape" (Chapter 14) seemed to leap off the page directly to me.

"Our whole life could be a ritual. We could learn to stop when the sun goes down and when the sun comes up. We could learn to listen to the wind; we could learn to notice that it's raining or snowing or hailing or calm. We could reconnect with the weather that is ourselves, and we could realize that it's sad. The sadder it is, the vaster it is, and the vaster it is, the more our heart opens. We can stop thinking that good practice is when it's smooth and calm, and bad practice is when it's rough and dark. If we can hold it all in our hearts, then we can make a proper cup of tea."

The practice here (both meditation and living life) is to eventually be able to understand and care for one's own suffering so thoroughly that the heart overcomes any fear of opening to another's suffering. Making one's own heart of service to other beings. A beautiful capacity I one day hope to have.

HAPPENING WITH HEALING OUTDOORS

Bye for now: I will be taking a 3-month break from posting here. My Mama Bear parental persona is taking over, and it is evident I will need to work 60 hours/week over this time in order to have enough funds to be able to move my daughter and myself by July to an as-yet unknown rental home.
One individual has expressed consistent interest in registering for Healing Outdoors walks in the woods. To that end, I will update the Offerings registration form on this site to allow people to sign up for Saturdays in July, August, and September 2015 - the hottest months when a walk in the cool woods is welcome! Due to the planning, coordination and travel time involved, I am unable to lead walks for less than 3 people at a time.

]]><![CDATA[Praising Earth]]>Sun, 15 Feb 2015 02:37:49 GMThttps://www.healingoutdoors.org/posts/praising-earth

Enjoying time with my two highest loves-- my daughter and Grandmother Earth-- we set out on a four-hour journey through the Earth Sanctuary on Whidbey Island. The fact we have lived about 10 miles from it for over 10 years and never visited until Valentine's Day 2015, is pretty remarkable. Talk about HEALING OUTDOORS!

The place exudes a sense of deep peace, comfort and even magic throughout. Here are some photos taken on our journey, but they cannot convey the ever-present bird sounds, the breezes, the effects on the body of sitting at the sacred spaces. I will definitely return!

Carli called it "An amusement park for nature." We both agreed being inside the dolmen stone structure near one entrance to the trail creates a feeling of ultimate safety, comfort, and peace we have rarely felt before.

When I first learned of Earth Sanctuary, the entry fee kept me away. I thought, why does someone need to pay to walk in woods, when there are many other locations on Whidbey I can walk for free? I quickly changed my mind after seeing what is actually at Earth Sanctuary. How much care, spiritual advisement, and what must be an enormous amount of funds to place stone structures, prayer wheels, and maintain trails and plantings.

May these photos convey even a bit of the peace we experienced today. You can't put a price or value on that.

Thank you Earth Sanctuary!

]]><![CDATA[Unconditional Love]]>Mon, 09 Feb 2015 18:12:03 GMThttps://www.healingoutdoors.org/posts/unconditional-love

What is that quality we call unconditional love? I set out to the woods to find out.

Some questions arising for me:

1) Is it possible to love ourselves unconditionally?
2) Can we expect others to love us unconditionally?
3) How do we know when we love without judgment, without condition, without anxiety about what will happen to us when we do?

Madrone (Madrona) trees called me.

And then I began seeing hearts everywhere.

I tried to sit in the presence of the part of me that is capable of unconditional love, and that part of me had a conversation with the part that sits with her head bowed on her folded arms in sadness and pain. After tears, gradually I became aware of a merging. A willingness to sit with pain and not move. That felt like unconditional love.

I walked on and noticed beautiful tree shelves (fungi). And I thanked the trees for their answers.

]]><![CDATA[As If You Are Free]]>Mon, 19 Jan 2015 16:46:35 GMThttps://www.healingoutdoors.org/posts/as-if-you-are-freeWalk as if you are free.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh

I set off from my car at 5:30 a.m. to walk 25 miles yesterday to raise funds for a friend (http://gofundme.com/e26648). All the night prior, winds up to 50 mph and pouring rain had me wondering what I was in for. Leaving my house at 5 a.m. I was pleasantly surprised to find clear skies and calmer winds, despite a lot of debris on the roadways. A bank sign read 52 degrees (!!!) at 5:30 a.m.

I wish I had a better camera to show you the stars overhead during my first 2 hours of walking in dark on roads free of lamp light. Elation accompanied the phrase "this is your birthright!" It dawned on me I had not walked under star cover in at least 20 years. And an orange sliver of moon at the horizon before the sun rose. So this is what I am missing to be fully human! A flash vision of what life could mean for me if I woke before dawn each day to walk under the stars.

My headlamp burned out, so I missed a street sign and had an accidental detour down 2 miles of a dead-end county road and back. I had no fear of being lost (I do this kind of thing all the time in life and have learned to rather enjoy accidental detours), but assumed incorrectly the road would eventually connect up to a road paralleling where I wanted to end up. For the entire walk under stars, I thought I was hearing the intermittent gurgle of a roadside stream (not unusual in these parts), so I kept focusing my little flashlight beam to the side -- until two hours later I realized it was the sloshing of the water bottles in my pack I was hearing! Another typical Erin experience.

The little video clip is from South Whidbey State Park where I was stopped by a beautiful bird call unfamiliar to me. I will look it up on a call identifier site, but if you know it, let me know. It was fabulous to be witness to the waking of the birds at dawn, like a sound switch is flipped. Unfortunately the timing coincided with car traffic, which made me long to hike in an area free of cars someday. ; )

Here is the route I intended to take:
http://www.mapmywalk.com/routes/view/559405938

Here is how far I got inclusive of detour:
http://www.mapmywalk.com/routes/view/616031558

I am happy with walking 8 hours and 18 miles and know what I would do differently next time to prevent the little toe incident that sidelined me. It was a last-minute decision to not carry an extra pair of shoes in my pack that is the culprit. A few years ago I landed in the ER for that same toe that does not fit any standard athletic shoes, and by mile 17, here was my thought process "Do I want to end up in a hospital to help a friend who is in a hospital?" Nope. So I called my dear mom who scooped me up from the road.

The hawk on a branch in the images below appeared just at the point I was considering ending my walk. As soon as I would approach the tree it was on, it would fly another 100 feet. It did this repeatedly, so I was able to make that last mile by following its encouragement. To me, hawks are powerful protective spirits, but another theory my mom pointed out is that it could have been perceiving my soon to be road-kill status and was simply an opportunist. LOL. Regardless I was glad for his company as I finished a lovely day of walking as if I was free.

Though I did not reach my intended mileage, I am thankful I arrived at one destination - to call attention to Crystal's fundraising page to help her and her two children at this time. May all facing cancer encounter equal opportunities for healing.

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