Trees: Helping with Grounding and Loneliness

Path to the water at the Doctor's House, Newfoundland

I'm realizing how difficult it is to stay grounded in this time when we're constantly bombarded by news that causes panic and fear in all of us. And it's difficult to recognize when we're not grounded. I'm currently leading live online zoom discussion sessions with several groups made up of 4 artists each. In these groups, I do a grounding meditation at the beginning of each session. I can feel the group energy change as we connect with the earth. Participants have mentioned how important and calming this process is.

"Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky." Kahlil Gibran

It can also be a time of loneliness. Even artists who are so independent and truly love alone time can get lonely. That happened for me on Easter Sunday. I normally have the whole family over for the afternoon and for Easter dinner. We play bocci or frizbee or some made up game outside on the field, while we yell at the dogs for running away with the balls. Then we come inside for a delicious dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes and apple pie, served with conversation and much laughter. Yesterday we were all in our various homes, eating our dinners alone. My sad feeling lasted for the day, on a day we always spend together. I so missed being together.

Today, my daughter shared this post with me that she saw on Facebook, from the Iceland Review. Amazingly, in Iceland, where there are few trees, the Forest Service recommends that in a time of self-isolation and lack of physical contact, to hug trees to combat loneliness. Hugging trees is also a great way to ground ourselves, to feel the energy of the tree and to imagine following its roots down into the earth. It doesn't matter the size of the tree.

If you're not inclined to hug a tree, then just walking slowly and mindfully through a forest is also beneficial. The research database PubMed lists 85 studies on the health impact of forest bathing, including studies indicating that it significantly lowers blood pressure, heart rate, cortisol levels and sympathetic nerve activity compared with city walks, while also alleviating stress and depression. The most provocative of these studies conclude that exposure to phytoncides, the airborne, aromatic chemicals/oils emitted by many trees, have a long-lasting impact on people’s immune system markers, boosting natural killer cells and anticancer proteins by 40 percent.

If there are no trees or forests available for you to walk through right now, then just looking at photos of trees and forests will also do the trick. Here's a beautiful video about Gratitude for the earth and for one another from the Gratefulness.org website.

Old growth forest on Meares Island off the coast of Tofino, BC

When I am Among the Trees

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, "Stay awhile."
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, "It's simple," they say,
"and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine."

Mary Oliver

Liminal Time

The word liminal comes from the Latin, limen meaning threshold. an in-between place, a place of transition, a time of waiting and not knowing. Dawn and dusk are considered liminal places. Crepuscular animals, like foxes and coyotes are most active at this time of day, a time that is considered a magical time in Celtic spirituality and to Indigenous people which is perhaps the origin of their designation as tricksters. As I write this, the northern hemisphere has just passed the vernal equinox, where day and night are of equal length.We are in a liminal space between winter and spring right now, unsure if we will have one more storm or snowfall before spring finally settles in. We're also in a liminal place as we live through this pandemic with the anxiety and discomfort of not knowing. A time of great transition for the entire world, wondering what we've learned from this and what lessons we'll carry forward. Author and Fr...

Lessons that Stone Walls Teach

Dry stone wall in the Burren, Co. Clare, Ireland I've just returned from teaching a Workshop in Wild Places class in the Burren in County Clare, Ireland. Writing this post, I'm reminded of another post I wrote after visiting Inishmaan, the middle of the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland several years ago. Stone walls crisscrossed the island in tight webs like a fisherman's net. I wrote then that the web of stone walls made me think of the idea of putting limitations on our painting as a way of exploring more deeply and how walls give limits against the limitless. You can read that article here. As our group hiked in the Burren with our guide, Marie McGauran we learned that the walls are stronger because of the holes in them. The wind can pass through. The oldest stone walls, estimated to be 3500 years old are at Skara Brae, a Neolithic site in Orkney. Most walls were built in the 18th and 19th century, marking areas of private ownership and resultin...

Am I Too Old to Change? Embracing Life

Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán from Pexels I'm in the process, at last, of working on the book that came to me in a dream seven years ago. It has circled my head all these years, demanding I get at it. It's called: We're Not Done Yet: Coming to Art Later in Life . It has actually hung in the air a couple of feet behind my head, attached by a string like a helium balloon, like a cartoon cloud, waiting for me to get to it. Some of you will know of it because I posted a request on Facebook in 2019 asking for artists who have come to art later in life to reply to me if they'd like to answer a questionnaire. I received 168 responses plus earlier interviews I did before the put out the questionnaire. There was some overlap, and some didn't respond after they'd offered to. All in all, I received 128 responses. By a huge majority it was women who responded to my questionnaire. By the time we get into our 60's we bring a rich life experience to our work: m...

Janice Mason Steeves

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