#12 Memories of Summer Make Winter Fade For a While
Today I hit a wall. It’s still rainy and cold in Seattle and I couldn’t deal with the gloom. Do you ever get that trapped feeling at this time of year? You feel like spring should be coming but it isn’t quite. So I started just flat out daydreaming of blue skies and warm sun, what my mood would be like right now if I were on a tropical beach. Who am I kidding, my mood would be awesome. Then I realized I did have those blue skies and sun…
#11 The Profound Questions in the Nature Principle
In his book, The Nature Principle, journalist Richard Louv brilliantly explores the restorative powers of the natural world. It’s a great compendium of the physical and psychological benefits of being in nature. In addition to compelling research, Louv uses interesting anecdotal evidence and his own personal experiences to lay out how much healthier and happier we can be when we spend time in green places. It’s a thoughtful, tenderly written, optimistically envisioned portrait of our society today. Last Child in the Woods Years ago, Louv sort of exploded on the…
#10 A Poem Digs Deep Into Plant Love
W.S. Merwin is one of my favorite poets because he’s intensely connected to the natural world. He digs deep into plant love through his words. Not only did he believe in the importance of preserving the environment, he lived for years in Hawaii, gradually restoring a palm forest on Maui. It now houses almost 3,000 palm trees. Within that collection, there are 125 different tree genera, which subdivide into 400 species and 800 varieties. Botanically speaking, that’s incredibly impressive. A Vision Early On I also admire W.S. Merwin (as well…
#8 Just One Houseplant Can Heal You
Social media is jammed with dreamy images of perfect people with perfect houseplant collections, but the truth is just one houseplant can heal you from the stresses of the day. There are a lot of myths in those images anyway, some of which I’ll write about in a future post. In the meantime, consider choosing and growing one wee houseplant to reap its destressing benefits. Which Houseplant is Best? Not too long ago, I wrote a post on the five easiest houseplants to grow. These are the low-maintenance, starter houseplants…
#6 A Ridiculously Easy Way to Relax With Trees
So yesterday I talked about looking at plant photos as a way to relax. Today, I’m going to offer an easy way to relax with trees. First, we need to refer back to the benefits of looking at fractal patterns, which I explored the other day. These are the patterns that our eyes are naturally in sync with, where a simple design repeats itself over and over to form a complex whole. That complex whole can exist in several ways in nature. One of the most common is in tree…
