take a walk on the zen side

The day just won’t start. Like a cold engine on an early winter morning. The sky is grey and lacks brightness. That is a light lie. Winter mornings can be blindingly bright. The cruel sparkle of frost and ice flash a warning to proceed with care. Everything is on display even our very breath. Winter is a harsh season, its brutality forces deferrals. Like fingers cramped from cold struggling to articulate and untie stiff laces, we’ve tangled truths into deeper knots and roughly thrust them aside for a later day. America has emerged from a long winter of discontent.

Today is a dull July day. I’ve been waiting for the sun to come out. I’ve been scrolling for good news. The coffee is never strong enough on a day like this but I know better than to have one more. My thumb continues working like the lever on a slot machine. NYT. NPR. Huff Post. IG. Guardian. CBC….

Celebrity shenanigans keep hijacking the news. Economies falter and the pandemic rages on. Waves, spikes and plummets inverse to the desired order. So many lives ravaged, so many human rights denied. Peaceful protestors are abused with rubber bullets and tear gas. Meanwhile tributes for the great Sen. John Lewis continue without irony. He thought the sequel might prove better than the original and I pray he’s right. If this chapter of history was a book I’d flip ahead to reassure myself, or worse brace for what comes next. There is no escape, history is being written here and now. Sides are being chosen.

Even though the sun is obscured by clouds, there is a canopy of phytonutrient rich leaves. The tree limbs are laden with healing.
I was fortunate to enjoy a two hour hike on part of the Bruce Trail this weekend. It was my Northern Ontario version of Shinrin-Yoku, the Japanese forest bathing therapy that engages all five senses. Studies show that forty minute forest walks can lower cortisol levels, blood pressure and heart rates. Trees release organic compounds and essential oils called phytoncides which are recognized as immune boosters. I believe breathing in the supercharged oxygen and phytoncides of spruce and pine helped me reset for another week of crazy news cycles.
But I barely made it over the hump. Global pandemics and attacks on democracy are high stakes crises. The vigilance is exhausting. Calls to action. Petitions to sign. Absentee ballots to request. Oh and I’m trying to focus on creating art too.
I’m going to need a lot more phytoncides.

The Bruce Trail is miles away and neighborhood shrubs and maples won’t suffice. The next few months are an endurance test. I need to pace myself, burnout is a real diagnosis. I’ve always been aware of the healthy trifecta of diet, exercise, and meditation but I’ve neglected getting a regular dose of nature. I’m on a quest for all the dense green spaces I can find in the city. Nature is full of healing and it has been prescribed from the dawn of medicine. I’m not a doctor but I’ve played one on TV, feed your spirit and soul like you feed your body and mind.