I woke up Thursday morning listening to the pouring rain in Spanish Fork and thought maybe a field trip that day wasn’t such a good idea. However, with the rain letting up and being much lighter in Provo, it seemed silly to stay inside. This may not be a true statement for everyone, but it certainly is true for me: I very often wake up the morning of a scheduled hike and think how nice it would be to just stay inside, warm and dry and clean, most likely reading a good book. However, every single time I go outside into the woods/canyons/red rock/mountains/wilderness/marshes instead of staying home, it’s like a power shot of happiness and joy and health. I have NEVER regretted going outside when I really had just wanted to stay home.
So this class blog post will be a little different. We did find cool things outside – smooth sumac (the lemonade bush), various kinds of moss and lichen, gumweed (remember that tea!) hackberry trees, at least a couple species of fragrant sage, juniper trees (think scaly with blue, mostly-inedible berries), the remnants of onion flowers, deer bones, Oregon grape, a teeny tiny snail, some mild-then-awesomely spicy mustard leaves, green and purple rocks, and a super teeny colony of super teeny fungi – and I’ll share photos of all those things. But what I was reminded of during this field trip – and what I hope you all got to experience as well – is the rejuvenating power of being submerged in nature. Some people have taken this phenomenon and turned it into something mystical and magical, and some have honestly blown it up to a level simultaneously creepy and ridiculous. While that’s maybe fun for a while (the mystical magic, not the creepy), the power of nature to uplift the mind and the soul is actually quite scientific and intensely spiritual.
Winter is completely natural and necessary. The cycles of the seasons and life and death are both normal and beautiful and reassuring that there is more to this life than just what we see in front of us every day. But winter can also be intensely difficult for many people because it is dark and cold and wet and dreary. There are many things we can do to alleviate that heavy emotional weight the sometimes comes when life feels dark. Despite seeming counterintuitive (because honestly, staying inside with a huge blanket, a good book, and a mug of hot chocolate is also good for my mental health!) nothing can replace the boost that going outside gives you.
This isn’t homework at all, but I encourage you to get outside as far into nature as possible at least once a week during the winterim. Sometimes it’s not possible to go far, but it’s also not necessary to go very far. Take your family. Take your friends. Leave behind worldly and superficial distractions. Just go and be refreshed.
Thanks for a great semester! We are so excited for next semester and all the things we will be doing, seeing, and experiencing Happy All-the-Holidays between now and January 18th!
If you are interested in the SCIENCE behind why nature (not just gardening) is healthy and has restorative and healing effects on mental and emotional health, THIS book is fascinating. The Freud chapters are a waste of time, but the other chapters talk about the organisms and microbes in the soil and how those affect your brain chemistry. And that’s just the beginning. The case studies are fascinating! Additionally, although I suspect this author is not religious – the book certainly isn’t – this book made it so clear to me how God has perfectly organized and prepared everything needful for us to be healthy and happy in this life. Nurturing and healing definitely go hand in hand, and before this book, I had never imagined that plants had so much to do with that. (Also, this book is on the approved book list! If you have any interest in psychology (not the Freud junk) you will enjoy this book.)
