Solace of the Forest

The weight of world events grew even heavier last week. International conflict, terrorism abroad, dire global climate predictions, a domestic mass shooting and the ensuing political rhetoric became impossible to ignore.

Conversation around the water cooler – at work, at home or even in the supermarket checkout line – betrays a jittery collective consciousness. Fear is made palpable in world news headlines. Once shaken, I awaken with a fatalistic sense of dread. What’s next?

As a sometimes-talkative son/husband/father, gym locker room philosopher and a professional naturalist and self-avowed tree-hugger, I prescribe a healthy dose of Vitamin ‘N’ for “nature” when times get tense.

In troubled times, the quiet beauty of late autumn woods provides my personal intentional antidote to anxiety regarding shootings or strife. I say “intentional” because (perhaps like you) my default mode includes a television constantly feeding far-flung bad news onto my living room wall. I recognize a point at which I need to turn off the news of the day and seek the ancient, ancestral comforts – soothing sights and sounds - of the outdoors: water trickling, wind in pines, sunlight glistening, stars twinkling.

I also recommend brisk, outdoor exercise. Take a hike! If a short drive to popular hiking trails at Mount Monadnock, Mount Major or the White Mountains is too adventurous, take a walk in a local Town Forest or a State Park with walking paths and trails.

Before snow blankets the woods, the dry rattle of clinging beech and oak leaves is punctuated only by blue jays or the sound of falling water before ice has formed. Along rivers and ponds, beavers, otters, muskrats, ducks and geese are busy feeding and making final preparations for winter. Gray squirrels forage in fallen leaves – topping off their winter larder of acorns or pilfered sunflower seeds. Deer season ends today. The leaves have fallen; the woods exhale. My thoughts turn inward. I walk in beauty.

The “Nature Rx” is particularly effective at the close of the natural year in December when nights are long and access to sunlight is limited. The last days of autumn are among the shortest of the entire year. Winter solstice arrives in just two weeks! After that, days grow gradually longer. I hear people complain about how the darkness of December and January are tough on human spirits. We rise in the dark and head off early to work or school. When we return home, it’s dark again.

Peace of mind is found right overhead. I rarely consider time spent looking skyward to be time wasted. Look at the stars! Look for animal shapes or faces in clouds. Take a few minutes each morning to watch the sunrise and admire the slanting, low-angle rose-pink light of dawn piercing purple clouds.

Nature is impassive. The forest doesn’t care. Twinkling stars don’t follow news of human affairs. And while kicking through fallen leaves, watching wildlife and stargazing won’t solve or reduce the world’s problems, it sure helps me feel a little less anxious and stressed-out

With more inner peace and less dread at the state of world affairs, perhaps I can more easily offer a smile to those around us… even strangers I might otherwise fear. The idea that beauty and love conquers ugliness and hatred grows from seeds sown in human hearts when we take time to reconnect with Nature surrounding us.

I think that it’s worth a try anyway.