The Healing Art of Nature

Nature Bound, small collage by Donna Watson

Recently, some Japanese researchers set out to discover whether something special... and clinically therapeutic... happens when people spend time in nature.  In the early 1980"s the Forest Agency of Japan advised people to take a stroll in the woods for better health.  This practice was called forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku... and it was believed to lower stress.  Since then, a large body of evidence has shown that spending time in nature causes beneficial changes in the body.

I live on a cliff over looking a large body of water... and there are wooded trails around my home that lead down to the beach down below.  I also have created beautiful Japanese gardens that surround my home.

Studies have found that the quiet atmosphere, beautiful scenery, good smells and fresh, clean air in forests all contribute to lower stress, lower anxiety, and help symptoms like depression, heart disease and even cancer.

This is part of my moss garden...  there is a circular path around this moss garden where one can walk and meditate.  Plants and trees release compounds that protect them from pests; when humans inhale those compounds, it promotes healthy -- and measurable-- biological changes.

When I walk through my woods around my home, I love to forage and collect moss covered sticks,

fallen leaves, weathered wood, lichen...  and take to my greenhouse (Zen House).  This is where I also keep my fossil collection, rock collection, driftwood collection, bird nest collection....  and small bonsai collection.

Inside my Zen House

This is where I keep my moss covered sticks with a small bird's nest and ferns.  Research has shown that bringing bits of nature inside can also be very beneficial... even a plant in your room or just looking at trees through a window.

Here are some ferns with my crystal rock collection.

I planted bee balm in my herb garden this year, not realizing I would get these beautiful flowers.

Jizo, the protector of women, children and travelers

"The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it.  If a mountain is a deity, not a pile of ore; if a river is one of the veins of the land, not potential irrigation water; if a forest is a sacred grove, not timber; if other species are our biological kin, not resources; or if the planet is our mother, not an opportunity -- then we will treat each one with greater respect.  That is the challenge, to look at the world from a different perspective."  David Suzuki

The Art of Being

My husband has been very busy this summer.  This torii gate has become the entrance to my Zen house.

The effect of building a space within a space is very powerful.

This is the path of stones to the entrance of my Zen house.

Line becoming object becoming space.

My husband built this Zen house (green house) several years ago.  Graced with bonsai outside and bird cages,

bird nests, buddha, rabbit vane, rocks fill the space within.

The effect of the Zen house is to give form to the surrounding gardens.  Within are

sweeping gestures of light and space.

Small pots of bonsai, help fill the space like a coloring book.

Here I am making boundaries, defining a space just to be.

Simply creating a space, enclosed and separate from the wild: a niche to feel safe inside of.

A moss ball I made earlier this summer with a rabbit fern.  It is sitting on white rocks in a lovely flat pot.

Some of my nest and rock collections.

More nests.

Another moss ball I made earlier this summer.  It is a rabbit fern and is attached to a piece of bamboo.

Back outside the Zen house...  at the entrance.  

My husband built 3 bamboo gates this summer.

Closing the gate, building the wall, we shut out the wild but still maintain the wild within.

The intent is to be at one with our environment.

The Art of Being

The fern in the rain breathes the silver message.

Stay, lie low.  Play your dark reeds

and relearn the beauty of absorption.

There is nothing beyond the rotten log

covered with leaves and needles.

Forget the light emerging with its golden wick.

Raise your face to the water-laden frond.

A thousand blossoms will fall into your arms.

-- Anne Corey, from A Measure's Hush