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Interdependent Us

7/16/2014

(same plant, spring then summer)

Grateful to read these words today 22 years after they were written for Earth Summit.

Declaration of Interdependence

This we know:
We are the earth, through the plants and animals that nourish us.
We are the rains and the oceans that flow through our veins.
We are the breath of the forests of the land, and the plants of the sea.
We are human animals, related to all other life as descendants of the firstborn cell.
We share with these kin a common history, written in our genes.
We share a common present, filled with uncertainty.
And we share a common future, as yet untold.
We humans are but one of thirty million species weaving the thin layer of life enveloping the world.
The stability of communities of living things depends upon this diversity.
Linked in that web, we are interconnected – using, cleansing, sharing and replenishing the fundamental elements of life.
Our home, planet Earth, is finite; all life shares its resources and the energy from the sun, and therefore has limits to growth.
For the first time, we have touched those limits.
When we compromise the air, the water, the soil and the variety of life, we steal from the endless future to serve the fleeting present.

This we believe:
Humans have become so numerous and our tools so powerful that we have driven fellow creatures to extinction, dammed the great rivers, torn down ancient forests, poisoned the earth, rain and wind, and ripped holes in the sky.
Our science has brought pain as well as joy; our comfort is paid for by the suffering of millions.
We are learning from our mistakes, we are mourning our vanished kin, and we now build a new politics of hope.
We respect and uphold the absolute need for clean air, water and soil.
We see that economic activities that benefit the few while shrinking the inheritance of many are wrong.
And since environmental degradation erodes biological capital forever, full ecological and social cost must enter all equations of development.
We are one brief generation in the long march of time; the future is not ours to erase.
So where knowledge is limited, we will remember all those who will walk after us, and err on the side of caution.

This we resolve:
All this that we know and believe must now become the foundation of the way we live.
At this turning point in our relationship with Earth, we work for an evolution: from dominance to partnership; from fragmentation to connection; from insecurity, to interdependence.

© The David Suzuki Foundation

Agree? You can sign on by going HERE

Fear and Caregiving

7/13/2014

Currently I am 6 days into a 30 Days of Fear Challenge in which participants commit to one of three daily things:

1) Do something you fear.
2) Do something you have put off or procrastinated about.
3) Do something you have never done before.

This week I visited some admirable family caregivers in a hospital, got outside and took these photos of a sculpture whose meaning dovetailed beautifully with all my insights about fear. It was a reunion of sorts with this section of very familiar trail over my several years of living/working in Seattle and being at Children's Hospital with my own child. But the sculpture was a surprise to me. I googled the artist's intent here.

For my Fear Challenge, I am choosing specific activities, some new, some a relief to get done, some funny, some personally terrifying, but it occurred to me the moment I was walking this trail that ALL the elements of the Fear Challenge are included in caregiving. I suddenly understood why the Fear Challenge brought up all these feelings I recognized.

Caregiving is full of making vigilant decisions ranging from life and death to life-altering to deciding between a series of worst case scenarios to making sure daily tasks are completed for catastrophe prevention to deciding how to introduce joy and increase quality of life inside limitations for the person being cared for.

To sit with a decision, especially within a time frame not of your own making (for a surgery or medical decision), means sitting at the edge of fear. It is during the time of decision when the fear hangs in the air. Once the decision arrives, the fear dissipates, instantaneously becomes recognizable as "no fear at all" or remains but shape shifts into something "fear less" resigned to be a portal one must walk through.

One thing I am becoming more aware of is how often Life serves us despite our fears. I was walking with a caregiver in this moment and happened upon this sculpture created to represent natural cycles of forest renewal while studying ecopsychology and doing a fear challenge. "Not Yet" and "Already" speak loud and clear.

How do you see Life serves you? I would love to hear in the comments.

Call for Caregiver Blog Posts

I welcome guest posts from people currently caregiving. If you have anything to share about how important connecting to nature has been for you or an ill loved one, please send it through the Contact button here: CONTACT

I am a compulsive proofreader so you can send anything in rough form of any length (even a sentence or paragraph) and I can proofread and post it. Healing Outdoors has a small friendly readership, but it is a public forum, so if you wish to leave out details of your situation, you are welcome to post anonymously. We all benefit from your sharing!

Two Happy Books to Guide Connection to Nature

7/11/2014

I ordered this little gem of a handbook as soon as I discovered it. It contains everything you need to know about the benefits of forest bathing or "shinrin yoku," how to lead small groups, suggestions for regular home nature connection practices, resources lists, a walk evaluation form to copy, and great wisdom about allowing a group to form their own connections.

Someday I would love to be able to afford the trip to California, costs of camping and the 5-day training to become a forest guide through the program M. Amos Clifford has expertly created.

The more I learn about approaches to nature connection and lineages within the field of ecopsychology/ecotherapy, I see there are varied approaches to the questions "how many senses do humans have?" and "does nature welcome us immediately or want us to seek permission?" To me personally, whether a human is scientifically identified to have 53 senses or 8 matters less than the actual connection and healing experience I and others have.

I especially appreciate the humor sprinkled throughout the book, as exemplified here in the description of an end of walk tea ritual: "This tea is made of wild plants. . . that bugs have walked on. . . maybe even birds have poo'ed on them. . . it's not just a tea, it's an adventure!"

(For the concerned, boiled water helps).

The author devotes space in his handbook to safety and common sense. "Hazardous or not? It's a good idea to know, and to know when you don't know." (p. 9).

It occurs to me I have been extremely fortunate. I wonder if I have a little "nature angel" of some sort because without any real wilderness training I have gone on long solo hikes often outside the zone of telecommunications for at least 25 years without injury or problem. Some of what I have done defies common sense. So the arena of wilderness training is where I want to gain more skills if I am going to properly and safely guide folks who may not themselves have such a "nature angel" working overtime. . . and for such a day when that angel decides to take a nap. ; )

I thoroughly enjoyed developing this little booklet of 20 nature connection exercises with over 50 photos taken by me and my daughter (who wished her full name and photo withheld).

Nothing earth-shaking or ground breaking here, but great fun to compile. I have many more nature photos to choose from for another more detailed book to include resources specifically for family caregivers as I continue my daily forays into the woods and wild spaces within proximity to me.

It started as a course requirement for Project NatureConnect to come up with a single exercise that could be done to help people connect to nature and turned into 20!

The link to purchase this book on Amazon is listed on the Healing Outdoors Store page but I post it here as well: Naturography

I have no desire to become an accredited "counselor" in the standard sense, but I look forward to continuing my education journey in the field of ecopsychology and ecotherapy so that I can serve and reach more people hungry for this "return home" connection.

Two Steps to Connection

6/30/2014

In Love With the World

Two simple rules of natural attraction ecology have changed my life as I practice them. They form the first steps of every activity in my soon to be published book of 20 nature connection exercises anyone can do from anywhere called "Naturography". Until then, here is a review.

Ever walk, run, drive, or cycle somewhere and not remember anything from Point A to Point B? Ever been to an incredible place in nature but spin your mental gears or focus on some athletic endeavor to the point you are not taking in what is around you?

Now think of a time you are/were in Love with someone and being with that person in a crowd could make everything else seem not to exist. This is the Love you can have with all of the natural world and I believe this is the Love that all humans had until we forgot.

1) Go toward a place that is attractive to you and make sure it remains attractive to you for at least 60 seconds. If the area does not remain attractive, move on to another space that is. This can become empowering over time because you learn to identify and trust your own natural attractions and to remove yourself from them if they feel unsafe or uncomfortable.

2) Ask permission from the natural attraction to help you with whatever connection activity you want to do. Doing this announces to yourself (and your surroundings if you choose to believe it) "I am an equal," "I mean you no harm," and "I respect you." Try it for yourself and see if doing this changes your experience in the natural world.

The photo above is a perfect example of how practicing these two steps work to enhance my connection to nature. I was frustrated for 30 minutes of trying to capture a photo of any bird for my book. They all flew off too quickly for my simple camera. Suddenly I remembered to ask permission. I silently asked all birds in the area if they would allow me the opportunity to take a photo. Thirty seconds later these young horned larks appeared and stayed in place for several minutes, one with a caterpillar in its beak.

A Gift for You

For those home or hospital bound especially, may you soak up this beauty and let nature in.

Work in Progress

6/23/2014

Love in Time of Turmoil

I see and feel Love toward living more
compassionately in relationship to Earth rising everywhere among my networks. I read of all sorts of ways people are greening the Earth with urban agriculture, finding ways to integrate nature connection into jobs once not considered "green." My vision to bring Healing Outdoors to address stress on family caregivers in hospitals is one of those efforts. Many of us are envisioning something we have not seen before in exact form.

My attempts to work with existing support groups inside hospitals have not yet met success. Support groups are closed environments built upon trust, and for institutional liability led by someone with a proven track record or credential. I am working toward an ecopsychology degree, but in the meantime seeking any opportunities to volunteer with groups of people leading simple nature connection activities. I love being outdoors (obviously) and remain open to the possibility I may do this on a volunteer basis outside hospitals in completely different venues for a while. Maybe someone who works inside a hospital might take it on and carry the torch in a way I cannot foresee.

I have no ego invested in the idea of ownership, only want to serve people in hospital environments because Healing Outdoors was a form of support that would have been powerful for me while going through the turmoil of being an intensive family caregiver.

On the horizon in August, I have an exciting opportunity with my daughter to lead two 45-minute groups during this event for people of all ages. I am also working on a set of flash cards for nature connection activities anyone can do to reduce stress, bring their senses in balance and ease painful emotions with feedback from the natural world. For now I can print out a few copies to share with groups, but as soon as I can find a way to afford to publish them for distribution, I hope they will become available to anyone in hospitals.

Flash Card Samples

2 x 2 SCAVENGER HUNT

Go to a spot attractive to you in nature.
Silently ask consent from this spot to help you with this activity.
Mark or visualize a boundary of 2 x 2 square feet using sticks, stones, leaves, anything natural. Your hunt area will include all the soil below you and everything above you to the thin blue line of space.
Find and check off as many things on the Scavenger List as possible in 5 minutes, including one item representing a current challenge in your life, and one item representing a current joy.
If in a group, share with the group what you would like, including how doing the activity made you feel. Did it validate your sense of self?

LISTENING TO NATURE

Go to an area you find attractive and safe in nature.
Silently ask permission from this spot to help you with this activity. Get comfortable.
For 3 minutes close your eyes and listen to every sound you can hear, inside or outside of you.
After 3 minutes, write down as many items as you can.
Now take crayons/coloring tools, even a stick in sand, and draw an image of the sounds you experienced.
If in a group, share your drawing or list, including how blocking out your visual sense made you feel.

Pathologic Depression or Ecological Sadness?

Spending the last two years doing work validating my true nature through daily conscious nature connection, I have been struggling with how to carry the deep sadness/grief with witness and awareness of what is being done to the natural world on massive scale and what I am personally doing by driving a car, riding a ferry boat, buying processed foods, plastics, etc. I do not believe I am alone, since the rise of medicated depression and anxiety over the past decade is truly staggering in "first world" countries, for lack of a better term (are not indigenous humans first?). Joanna Macy's concept that our grief IS our Love for the world gives me solace.

Despite all the sadness, I feel the best way to heal our pain is to stop spending 95% of our lives indoors if possible and reconnect in whatever way we can to our innate wisdom. It exists right there, inside our old sensory brain, and our language processing brain validates it for us. There are as many forms of nature connection as there are people, and no one way is "right." You do not need to go on a wilderness vision quest or even enjoy camping to be able to connect, though certainly you can go deep. If you let Nature teach anywhere you are, you will learn what you need.

My lifelong deep conversation with the natural world despite living a "modern" life and working at a computer the past 20 years has led me to want to find a way to live in the woods, be a hermit, fantasize about living in a different age. But I have also felt validated and transformed the more time I make for nature's feedback in my day to day life, and that is the key I want to share so people can unlock their own natural wealth, get on board the listening wagon, and reconnect their wisdom to nature's wisdom.

The interview below with Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, author of "Spiritual Ecology" based on his latest book "Darkening of the Light," provides a broad context for my tendency toward despair and feeling something must be wrong with me and my sensitivity. I share it in case you are someone who struggles with these questions too. We are definitely not alone.

http://goldensufi.org/MP3/Work_Reconnects_Interview_2013/L_Vaughan_Lee_Interview_WorkConnects.mp3

Heaven on Earth

6/17/2014

Heaven on Earth is how I described the Oregon Coast when I first met it at age 11 on a family road trip. And how I felt during my three years of college in Portland. And what has called me the last three consecutive Junes. This year I managed a 36-hour vacation, 12 hours of it driving my daughter to a music camp on the Oregon Coast.

What do you do when you have a 24-hour vacation in an entire year and you are in Heaven? You practice joy! Five hours beach walking and 4 hours mud slogging through old growth rain forest, and I bow to my knees with gratitude for life bringing me there.

Two hours into my beach walk, my eyes were drawn to things out of place - pieces of plastic. So I returned to my lodging, got a bag and started picking up every bit of plastic I could find that crossed my path. One of my slides below represents everything inside my bag, retrieved from just one pair of eyes observing for an hour. Each time I bent down I said to Father Ocean, "Forgive us, we know not what we do." There were a few dilemmas - like the plastic water bottle that had become habitat for gooseneck barnacles. Do I pick it up and kill the living creatures? I let that and the tire habitat stay. Do you think if each and every one of us who tread on a beach made it our practice to pick up plastic we could make a difference? See 5 Gyres for more information.

More and more I recognize Heaven on Earth exists everywhere around us, but we often find it a challenge to focus our attention there - even when we are surrounded by it. Practicing conscious nature connection makes me want to wake up and greet friends everywhere around me and I see reflected back to me what is inside my soul.

Interview With The Goodtimes Project

6/1/2014

I have been a longtime fan of Camp Goodtimes West and would be even if my own daughter had not attended camp the past four summers. What they offer free of charge to families is nothing short of remarkable. Last fall they were notified the American Cancer Society would no longer be sponsoring them after 30 years, so I wanted to do an interview to see what that transition was like.

Carol Mastenbrook, Executive Director, who came on board in November 2013, spoke to me by phone.

I asked what The Goodtimes Project's biggest challenge was transitioning away from American Cancer Society sponsorship for the first time in 30 years in 2014?

Paraphrasing, Carol told me, ACS gave us the infrastructure, technology, accounting, etc. We had to build structure at the same time we were soliciting, essentially "driving the car at the same time as we were building it." Fortunately people in this region really love this camp and people "stepped up."

I am truly grateful and amazed they are able to offer camp free of charge to families again this year despite all that building going on behind the scenes.

I asked how Camp Goodtimes West is related to Camp Goodtimes in Canada?

Apparently they are not at all related but have the same name. ACS sponsored Camp Goodtimes East and Camp Goodtimes West until last year. Camp Goodtimes East moved from Idaho to Spokane, Washington.

I cannot think of a better program than Camp Goodtimes to represent the concept of "healing outdoors", so I asked, how might you describe what being outdoors means to a person being treated in a hospital?

Carol's answer: "Hospitals are full of scary machines, statistics, routines, stressful decisions. Being at camp outdoors, children get to be cared for, nurtured, and re-experience childhood."

I asked Carol whether a family caregiver outdoors weekend retreat is something that might be helpful to parents facing childhood cancer and whether she knew of any organizations that sponsor family caregiver retreats. She did not immediately, and I told her my research finds the only regular caregiver retreat for both family and professional caregivers in Washington State is in my "backyard" at the Tahoma One Drop Monastery. If anyone finds another, please pass the name along to me! She hinted that such a retreat might be considered in the future as The Goodtimes Project expands.

When I asked what advice would you give to someone trying to start a nonprofit, Carol provided very helpful suggestions about clarifying a 30-second description of my mission and how I might seek volunteers to attend free nature connection workshops I could offer in the Seattle area. Creating a nonprofit organization is a huge endeavor that requires a lot more resources than I currently have, and for now I intend to gain more experience and collaboration.

Finally I asked how many families has Camp Goodtimes served (primarily from Alaska and Washington) and was told roughly 4500 children over 30 years! This number includes cancer patients and siblings combined. A powerful "recipe" seems to be the fact the camp combines healthy cancer survivors with children currently in treatment. This creates space for empathy, understanding, and hope.

Aside from the mission listed below from their website, it would not be complete if I did not mention the importance of SNOJ (pronounced "snodge") at camp. What is SNOJ? Super Novas of Joy, of course!

My daughter is thrilled to be attending camp again this summer and hopes to become a camp counselor in the future. The camp staff are out of this world incredibly committed people to providing a beautiful service to families facing childhood cancer. Each time I drop off my child at this camp, I leave with my own spirit uplifted from the infectious joy they foster.

Thank you Camp Goodtimes!

MISSION

Affirms the joys of childhood often missed by those in treatment
Fosters friendships between children and families who share common experiences
Instills confidence through a variety of programs and activities
Cares for their social safety as well as their medical safety
Strives to send the children back into the world as more independent, caring, and capable youth
Offers parents peace of mind as they entrust their children to camp, and take a well-deserved break

FUTURE
Our future vision expands our outreach into an organization that serves all aspects of the community affected by childhood cancer, such as:

Patient, sibling, teen and family events and retreats
Organized services and visits to pediatric oncology wards at Western Washington and Alaska hospitals.
Year-round activities to sustain community, provide support, and give patients, survivors, and siblings opportunities to laugh, play, sing and dance, make friends, meet mentors, and take back some of the "normalcy" that childhood cancer steals away.

Collaborations on Horizon

5/12/2014

I am thrilled to be making connections with a few folks who have something to offer in collaboration with a vision to support caregivers and Healing Outdoors. I will be posting updates as soon as any can be made public on this blog.

One family caregiver I hope will share her story for my book told me this week she "talked to the trees" during and after her child's hospitalization. She thought no one would understand or think her crazy. Well I do understand and do not think her crazy! : )

For your viewing pleasure, here are a few slide shows on themes "In the Green," "Tree Yoga," "Beach Geometry," and "Two Evening Skies" from my week taken in South Whidbey State Park, Sea Wall Park and Langley, Washington. I continue to photograph and connect with nature in order to heal myself from my paid job (true!) and to share with you all inspiration for your own nature connections. Peace!

Earth's Joys

4/27/2014

Connecting to Earth's joys is something that gives me great happiness. I can do this in my backyard, but today I am grateful for the opportunity to explore a state park new to me. Few things make me feel more alive than exploring unfamiliar territory and greeting all the life. I feel blessed to live in proximity to such splendor and enjoy sharing the connections I make.

I did not own a camera until 6 months ago, and it has become my most cherished possession because it helps me see and appreciate things I might otherwise overlook. Today's images are from Camano Island State Park, Washington, and a few of the Langley marina on Whidbey Island with an amazing spring sky. The same sky that caused a heavy hailstorm I drove through on my journey from one island to the other. Many of the trees are Madronas, and I'm sure you can identify the one I have dubbed "Peace Out" tree.

Reflection

4/26/2014

Reflection

How surface tension holds the weight of the world
I will never know.
A heart resides submerged,
the reflection's underside its ceiling
never fully exposed to light of day.
On the verge of drowning, the heart floats,
finds safety in leaving the body to ride
wind, trees, clouds and rain.
Freed from its moorings and misunderstandings,
the heart encounters a moss carpet, wild strawberries,
fir tree guardians,
drawing a mirage to guide it home.

~ Erin Waterman

My Life in 17 Syllables

My child arms open,
Find me among tall fir trees
Walking the stars home.