In honor of national bunny day (Easter), I walked a few blocks from me to photograph another symbol of abundance: Some of the many bunnies that essentially run my small town. In spring the babies are absolutely adorable of course! The adults sometimes literally stop traffic and often I see them gallumping up the street in front of my home. Many of them are a mix between domesticated rabbits released from county fairs and wild rabbits.
For my weekend blog post I was unable to stray far from home, so these glorious waterfall and river images were captured and generously gifted by my dad, Bob Waterman, along a 5-mile hike this week at one of the many falls along the Columbia Gorge near Hood River, Oregon. Waterfalls always remind me of fresh abundance and life giving power. In honor of national bunny day (Easter), I walked a few blocks from me to photograph another symbol of abundance: Some of the many bunnies that essentially run my small town. In spring the babies are absolutely adorable of course! The adults sometimes literally stop traffic and often I see them gallumping up the street in front of my home. Many of them are a mix between domesticated rabbits released from county fairs and wild rabbits.
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I spent a day outdoors yesterday, a day spent in Heaven on Earth. I visited two very different ecosystems. The first slide show is of the temperate old growth rain forest of South Whidbey State Park, Whidbey Island, Washington. Enjoy! I followed the sun to the second ecosystem, a large tidal flat in the county just north of Whidbey Island called Padilla Bay. Here is a link to one of Dr. Michael Cohen's books you can check out if interested in further exercises: Reconnecting With Nature. I am working to develop my own exercises, but for now my intent is to post one video per week of my takeaways from participating in Project NatureConnect courses. The Moor By R. S. Thomas (1913 - 2000) It was like a church to me. I entered it on soft foot, Breath held like a cap in the hand. It was quiet. What God was there made himself felt, Not listened to, in clean colours That brought a moistening of the eye, In movement of the wind over grass. There were no prayers said. But stillness Of the heart's passions -- that was praise Enough; and the mind's cession Of its kingdom. I walked on, Simple and poor, while the air crumbled And broke on me generously as bread. I just discovered the Ripple Kindness Project published my own blog post on their Facebook page, so I am returning the favor by posting the link to all their good works here! Here is my post titled "Being a Ripple" written in 2012, about Rebecca Dufek, one of my "heroes": Ripple effects can happen with sound waves, water waves, wind. We all cause ripples in others lives, most of which we may never know or see. I want to introduce someone who made a ripple in my life, my interior life, the small part of me with confidence to think I can do anything, even if I may rarely live this way. Here is why. This year I received a holiday card from Rebecca with a photo of her, her husband, and her 2 dogs that thanked me for being an inspiration to her and encouraging her she could do it when we met in 2006 during training to walk the full Seattle marathon with Team In Training (see link on the blog roll to the right). Upon reading this comment, I thought, ?WHAT? because I felt exactly the same about her. She is the most inspirational person I have ever met. In fact, I had no idea I had been at all inspiring to her. For both of us, this was our first attempt at a marathon. When I first met Rebecca on the trails, I saw someone who had a tottering gait and yet so friendly I did not realize at first she was completely deaf. She was able to communicate her situation to me with a little writing pad and gestures as we walked, and I learned she had a disease that caused benign brain tumors to develop, which caused her to lose her hearing, balance, and requires countless surgeries to remove them. For that 2006 marathon, we trained over a 6-month period, and here is what happened: Rebecca, who had trouble balancing and unable to hear, completed her marathon as the fastest walker of anyone in our team. I sprained my ankle a week before the event and was unable to participate. I still have yet to complete a full sponsored marathon, though I created my own in 2010 by walking the distance in a single stretch. My disappointment in not being able to participate in the marathon was countered by my belief that everything happens for a reason. Only a few days after the marathon, my daughter ended up on oxygen for a month with a complication from chemo, and I believe if I had actually done the marathon, I would not have been able to be there in the way she needed me to. Rebecca visited my daughter in the hospital that month, and she is one of the few visitors my daughter remembers from that time. At any rate, Rebecca is an amazing person whose ripple is large. She knows life is what we make it, and she lives on that edge of constantly being reminded of her own mortality. She has a devoted husband and motivation to continue using her energy on behalf of others, partly as a way to ease the grief of her condition. Her last year’s surgery impacted her facial nerve, so she can no longer grace the world with her smile, but she graces the world with her spirit in a big way. Postponed until 2012, a documentary is in the works about her attempted climb of Kilimanjaro. I coincidentally ran into her at a conference the week after her return from that adventure in 2010. Rebecca’s Kilimanjaro Climb Movie Rebecca’s Blog Breaking out of my comfort zone is difficult, so I had to triple dare myself to post this little video. I decided everyone looks dorky holding a camera at arm's length and this was the best I could do given my circumstance. Eventually my goal is to create a video that invites you to participate in some nature reconnection activities with me, and for that I will have someone else hold the camera so I can reach further from the dorkiness zone.
I had great fun taking these images over 6 miles of old growth trail today at Hoypus State Park on North Whidbey Island. The pink salmonberry, yellow skunk cabbage, nettles, and sword fern spores are all great heralds of spring in the Pacific Northwest. Hope you enjoy viewing as much as I did capturing them! Hang up your phone call to the chatter in your mind. Let go of all your worries. Just listen for a minute to nature's music, hail striking salal. To learn more about salal's importance in the Pacific Northwest ecosystem, click here. Images and sounds brought to you this day by Greenbank Farm, Whidbey Island, Washington.
Try this powerful form of nurturing yourself. Go out of your mind and connect. Listen. Watch. Sense. Let the natural world be your healer and teacher. Be kind to yourself and restore yourself, especially if you are a caregiver accustomed to restoring everyone else. Thanks to my local hospital who posted this in their newsletter, I just had to pass it along. The author is Jo Horne. I HAVE THE RIGHT To take care of myself. This is not an act of selfishness. It will give me the capability of taking better care of my loved one. To seek help from others even though my loved ones may object. I recognize the limits of my own endurance and strength. To maintain facets of my own life that do not include the person I care for, just as I would if he or she were healthy. I know that I do everything that I reasonably can for this person, and I have the right to do some things just for myself. To get angry, be depressed, and express other difficult feelings occasionally. To reject any attempts by my loved one (either conscious or unconscious) to manipulate me through guilt, and/or depression. To receive consideration, affection, forgiveness, and acceptance for what I do from my loved ones, for as long as I offer these qualities in return. To take pride in what I am accomplishing and to applaud the courage it has sometimes taken to meet the needs of my loved one. To protect my individuality and my right to make a life for myself that will sustain me in the time when my loved one no longer needs my full-time help. To expect and demand that as new strides are made in finding resources to aid physically and mentally impaired persons in our country, similar strides will be made toward aiding and supporting caregivers. HEALING OUTDOORS FOR CAREGIVERS BILL OF RIGHTS
(by Erin Waterman) I HAVE A RIGHT To maintain my connection to the natural world even when my caregiving responsibilities make this challenging. To bring the healing powers of nature into nature-disconnected spaces like hospitals, in the form of images or sounds where plants and animals may not be allowed. To take at least a 15-minute walk outdoors each and every day, even if this means seeking volunteers to be with my loved one. To follow my natural attractions in nature and allow them to teach and nurture me. To breathe deeply in concert with a tree/trees. To give my sorrows over to the natural world to be absorbed. "It is no accident that the word human has its ancient roots in humus, a fertile forest soil." "Biologists and chemists demonstrate that the natural world constantly flows around and through us. They show that every five to seven years every molecule in our body is continually replaced, particle by particle, by new molecules attracted in from the environment and vice versa. The natural environment becomes our body and we become it a dozen or more times during our lifetime. We and nature are each other." "Even people without scientific training recognize that everything in nature is connected, everything attracts or attaches to something else. We know that the global life system holds itself together through a variety of affinity attractions. It communicates through these natural attractions." Reconnecting with Nature by Michael J. Cohen, PhD (p 82-83) What is Naturography? It is a word I created to describe writing about and/or photographing our natural attractions to nature. Since my last blog entry 6 months ago, I am participating in online courses toward a master's degree in Ecopsychology with Michael Cohen's Project NatureConnect. I am communicating with people from all over the world in peer-led groups, learning powerful but simple exercises to reconnect old brain with new (reptilian with neocortex), language and reason with vast natural senses (many more than the 5 senses Aristotle taught us to believe), and becoming more acutely aware of the emotional pain caused by our societal separation from nature. How can we heal this pain? By consciously identifying our own natural attractions and place of power within the dance of nature. I invite you to try any of these exercises below as a start: Listening to Nature 1) Go to a natural area– anything that is attractive to you and ask for its permission to help you with this activity. 2) Get comfortable, close your eyes, and listen for 3 minutes to every sound you can hear. 3) At the end of the 3 minutes, write down everything you were able to hear in the natural area you chose. Did you hear your heartbeat? Your own breath? How many sounds did you hear outside of yourself? 4) If you have coloring tools, try to draw a colorful image of what you heard, as simple as you want or as detailed. Earth Energy Battery Recharge 1) Find a place that feels safe to lie down on the ground. Ask this place for permission to help recharge your energy. 2) Imagine you are a rechargeable battery needing replenishment. Lie comfortably on the ground for at least 10 minutes and try to relax your entire body on the earth. 3) Try this for as many consecutive days as you can, marking a green check on a calendar for each day, meaning you have sustained a minimum of “green time” or “vitamin G.” 4) After 10 consecutive days, write about any changes you notice. Are you overall more relaxed? Less anxiety about little things? Huge insights come to you? Realize how exhausted you really are? 5) After 20 consecutive days, congratulations! You are fully charged and conscious of how Earth’s energy benefits you. Discovering Our Natural Self Paraphrased from: Michael Cohen, Reconnecting With Nature PART ONE 1) Go to a natural area– anything that is attractive to you– a plant, animal, mineral, or place. 2) Ask for it’s permission to become involved with it. Gain its consent to help you with this activity. Do the following activity once you are sure the natural thing you selected continues to give you some sort of comfortable, attractive feeling. Be sure that you like this natural attraction. 3) Write down what you like and why. This may be as simple as: The (plant, animal, mineral, place, thing in this natural area) that I like is _____________. I like it because ____________. PART TWO 1) Change the second part of the sentence to “I like myself because __________. 2) Read it to others if possible. Does it describe part of you? Example: “I like the tree because it is beautiful and strong” becomes “I like myself because I am beautiful and strong.” You are nature. Does this describe some aspect of yourself? How do you feel about yourself in this light? Forest Bathing (After the Japanese term “shinrin-yoku”: Research Article on Benefits of Forest Bathing) 1) Go to a wooded area you find attractive. Ask this place for permission to help you with this activity. 2) Walk as long as you like paying attention to the living community that surrounds you. 3) Imagine a string between you and every sound and sight and touch you experience. Try walking for a minute saying the word “unity” to yourself alternating with a minute walking without any key word. Notice if there is any difference between the minutes you are repeating the word and those you are not. 4) Write down the 3 most important things you learned from this activity. Does this activity improve your sense of self worth? What did you feel? Becoming aware of our stories about nature, we recognize we tend to feel comfortable thinking of nature as exploitable real estate. When we reconnect to our multi-sensory experience in nature, we may think of nature as "an intimate part of ourselves, a personal fulfillment, a friend, a love, a wisdom in action, a community, a home and life support system, a teacher, a biological necessity for one's ethical, physical, and emotional well-being, a celebration of 4 billion years of relating wisely, a spiritual or sacred place." (Reconnecting With Nature, p 60). Over the past month, after searching for evidence-based research for Healing Outdoors, I came across the term "ecotherapy," and recognized it as exactly what I arrived at intuitively through crisis. I have decided to spend any spare moments between my various jobs to eke out a living immersing myself in techniques for reconnecting people to our innate place in the natural world's web. For anyone interested in reading more about the 20-year academic study of Ecopsychology/Ecotherapy, I invite you to view this reading list from my alma mater, Lewis & Clark College, that has developed a graduate ecopsychology certificate program. Or read the abundant life's work of Michael J. Cohen, from whom I am hoping to take an online course soon. Here is why the non-medical caregiver experience inside hospitals is so relevant to being supported with ecotherapy: 1) Hospitals are sterile environments, which is positive in a surgical situation or life-threatening crisis, but leaves people living prolonged amounts of time inside these environments extremely disconnected from the natural world. 2) Many hospital windows face walls or parking lots rather than trees or vistas. 3) Any sense of natural biorhythms is disrupted by routine laboratory tests, 24-hour TV in patient rooms, beeping IV machines, fluorescent lighting, and heart monitors. 4) Many caregivers find themselves in situations where they must remain in isolation settings with completely internal air flow for infection precautions, without ability to come and go, or even desire to leave their loved one's side. 5) Cancer floors of any hospital are probably the most extreme situations for disconnection, because even bedside "get well" flowers or plants, any real offshoots from the natural world, might compromise immunity and are therefore not allowed. This architectural article describes how Healing Gardens can be a huge aid to patient recovery when nature-based therapy is accepted in healthcare. My dream is that some day these types of healing parks will be fully integrated into hospitals-- a costly proposition on the one hand, but money saving if it shortens treatment and rehabilitation times and has lasting impact on the health of individuals. Short of changing architecture on a wide scale, programs like Healing Outdoors can be a template for bringing reconnection with the natural world into hospital environments via caregivers closest to ill patients. Testimony from those who go through brief therapeutic sessions in nature suggests the impact can be life changing beyond the 15 minutes spent observing, listening, being. It is my firm belief that when even the most nature deficient person is given tools to reconnect to their innate senses within the natural world, both emotional and physical regulation happens. |
AuthorErin Waterman Archives
January 2016
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