Thank you for opening our eyes and reminding us just how wonderful and beautiful our planet is when for much of the time we just take it all for granted and foolishly little by little we let it slip away. Happy 93rd Birthday Sir David Attenborough and thank you for all you have and continue to do to save our planet.
Shared from @amazonfrontlines on Instagram –
The Waorani people have just won a major legal victory to protect half-a-million acres of rainforest from oil and set a historic precedent for indigenous rights! Thank you to everyone who stood behind the Waorani people and helped make this important victory happen. ⠀
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Now we need to ramp up pressure to permanently protect this land and support other indigenous nations whose territories are still on the auction block. Send a message to the Ecuadorian government: respect the court’s decision and respect indigenous rights!.
The outdoor care retreats let nature give a valuable boost in creating a respite from the sterile and stringent hospital environment.
In Norway, the country’s two largest hospitals with the help of the Friluftssykehuset foundation charity, have created Outdoor Care Retreats known as friluftssykehuset. The spaces offer patients {children} from the welcome reprieve from the stringent treatments and isolation that often accompany long term hospitalisation.
The first of the retreats is tucked into the lush forest near a creek, a short walk from the entrance of Oslo’s University Hospital. The sister building cosies up to a pond in the deciduous woodlands by Sorlandet Hospital Kristiansand in the South of Norway.
Bringing patients outside the hospital the children relax and find the strength to get through their hospital treatment. Being in nature gives the children the feeling of possibility, more energy, hope and creativity. The environment contributes to better disease management.
A circular skylight in the retreat allows for tree gazing and the large glass windows can be flung wide open diminishing the line between outside and in. In this way visitors can peek into the woods, smell the damp forest and listen to the sound of trickling water by still being inside the cabin.
Most children play outside by the fire pit when they visit. The children may also be found fishing, chopping wood, shooting arrows and painting pictures.
The cabins are open to children up to the age of 18 with their doctor’s permission and parents can come along during visits.
Although the cabin is integrated in the hospital campus, its secluded location and natural aesthetics allow it to be perceived as a place of its own. It is a place of muted magic, a place out of the ordinary that provides a generous and much needed breathing space for visitors of all ages.
The idea isn’t a new one. In more recent times, the Japanese government introduced the concept of shinrin yoku, or ‘forest bathing’, urging people to make use of the country’s generous wooded area for therapy.
The Friluftssykehuset Foundation plans to build more Outdoor Care Retreats near hospitals in Norway and abroad. Nature is out there waiting patiently to help us heal.
Happy Spring.
The blossom is appearing from many a tree, the lawns are a scattering of yellows, leaves are unfolding from the tips of of branches and brave seedling push themselves out into the air from the fertile earth, to dance with the bees.
May you feel enough spaciousness within, that you allow yourself to open to the life force that awakens at this time, within each natural being on this land, including human animals.
May you open to your sap rising and be tender to your own internal seedlings and plans that want to brave new paths with you.
May you give yourself space to go out and dance in the blossom, admire bumble bees bottoms and smile at bright new shoots.
•art by Phoebe Wahl•
•words by Brigit Anna McNeill•
Two peculiar ‘crop circles’ have recently been spotted in Japan’s Miyazaki Prefecture. Viewable only from above, they were formed by sugi (Japanese cedar) trees.
According to information from Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, in 1973 an area of land near Nichinan City was designated as “experimental forestry” and one of the experiments was to try and measure the effect of tree spacing on growth. The experiment was carried out by planting trees in 10 degree radial increments forming 10 concentric circles of varying diameters.
Part of what makes the crop circles so alluring are their concave shape, which was an unexpected result of the experiment that would suggest tree density does indeed affect growth. The trees are due to be harvested in about 5 years but officials are now considering preserving the crop circles.
“Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it’s a feather bed.”
~Terence McKenna
Remember: when you brush your pets, keep the hair and peg it to your washing line or tree branches. It’ll help keep the little birds extra warm when they make their nests…
Tree Weaver 