"There is healing in hugging a tree...the idea is that everything is full of energy and that trees are something substantial that we can feel with our entire bodies.  They are alive and growing and very powerful...When I was sure no one was looking, I found a large tree and put my arms around it.  Holding myself close to the trunk, it actually felt good."

~ Ruth Fishel, Precious Solitude, Finding peace and serenity in a hectic world. Adams Media Corp., 1999.

From Wherever You Go There You Are, by Jon Kabat-Zinn*, "Standing meditation is best learned from trees.  Stand close to one, or, better still, in a stand of trees and just peer out in one direction.  Feel your feet developing roots into the ground.  Feel your body sway gently, as it always will, just as trees do in a breeze.  Staying put, in touch with your breathing, drink in what is in front of you, or keep your eyes closed and sense your surroundings.  Sense the tree closest to you.  Listen to it, feel its presence, touch it with your mind and body.
     Use your breath to help you to stay in the moment...feeling your own body standing, breathing, being, moment by moment."

*Hyperion, 1994, Afterward 2004. 

"When you appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of things, you receive energy." ~ James Redfield

We have spent a lot of time in nature during the last couple weeks.  As some of you know, Krista, our daughter-in-law experienced a "thalamic vascular lesion" ~ better understood by most of us as a stroke.  Krista is recovering remarkably well.  As one of her colleagues said, "Her huge personality and vibrant spirit hasn't been lost or diminished."

Krista is thanking everyone for their love and support and asking everyone to forgive her for not being able to respond right now.  She is taking a break from email, phone calls, internet, etc.  We have all learned from Krista that the harmony found in nature is healing.

In James Redfield's The Celestine Prophecy, [a book that Krista introduced to me], he discussed how certain environments radiate more energy than others, such as old natural environments, especially forests.  His third insight elaborated on the beauty of nature, "When you appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of things, you receive energy."

Ruth Fishel refers to James Redfield's writings in her book, Precious Solitude*, and quotes Edward O. Wilson as believing that "the love of living things" ~ plants, wildlife, and the great outdoors is genetic, encoded in human beings to ensure balance, harmony, and preservation."

*Ruth Fishel, Adams Media Corporation, 1999.

 

 

 

 [I don't have a telephoto lens.  You can see that I was close to this little fox.  Among wind turbines and solar panels, he manages to survive. lbw]

 

"...What's water but the generated soul?"

Upon the border of that lake's a wood
Now all dry sticks under a wintry sun,
And in a copse of beeches there I stood,
For Nature's pulled her tragic buskin on
And all the rant's a mirror of my mood:
At sudden thunder of the mounting swan
I turned about and looked where branches break
The glittering reaches of the flooded lake.

Another emblem there!  That stormy white
But seems a concentration of the sky;
And, like the soul, it sails into the sight
And in the morning's gone, no man knows why;
And is so lovely that it sets to right
What knowledge or its lack had set awry,
So arrogantly pure, a child might think
It can be murdered with a spot of ink.

. . .
~William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939) Irish poet
Many thanks to our friend who sent the poem to us.

"Being solitary is being alone well; being alone luxuriously immersed in doings of your own choice, aware of the fullness of your won presence rather than of the absence of others, because solitude is an achievement."

~ Alice Koller, author of The Stations of Solitude and An Unknown Woman.

"When something is intolerable is in my life, I head for the water.  It leavens me in some way.  Some middle-most part of me is soothed and silenced by it." ~ Alice Koller