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Viewpoint

Step Outside into Nature - Part II

4/14/2020

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PicturePhoto by Laura Cotterman
Waves of grief and anxiety wash over me. At a time when the world needs a hug, we just can’t. And all the public entertainment is gone--sports, movies, bars and restaurants. Even dining in the home of someone you love puts you at greater risk. I’ve given up seeing my 2-year-old and 6-year-old grandsons.
     It's heartbreakingly sad, and everyone is saying the worst is ahead of us. Death will come to some we love. But rebirth is all around us because spring is here and there is resurrection in that green wood. You can still find peace and great joy. Go outside. Go to the woods. Be very present. Let your thoughts pass like the clouds and really see what is here now and your stress will disappear. 
     Unlike those in Italy and China, we are not confined to our homes. We live in a beautiful green garden. This is the blessing. This can be our salvation. Go. Walk around your yard. Yell across the driveway to your neighbor. Decide where you’ll plant your garden. Feel the breeze. Listen to the birds. See the trees reaching upward to the heavens. You can stretch and reach, too. You can put your arms around that tree and hug it. Believe me, it will help you heal. Neuroscientists have studied it. It can also boost your immunity and is a tonic for stress and grief. It could save your life.   
     Jesus went to the mountaintop to pray. Buddha sat under the spreading branches of a fig tree with its heart-shaped leaves. They found the “peace that passeth understanding.” You can, too. 
     Water heals. Turn over the rocks and see the life on the underside. Skip a stone. Take your kids fishing. Walk alongside a stream. Listen. The sound of water, the gurgle, babble, splash soothes. So much life abounds it will renew your hope.  
         --Kathleen Williams-Mooradian, Southern Conservation Partners Board Member
          (Essay originally published on April 9, 2020, in The Tennessean )

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    Conservation, viewed in its entirety, is the slow and laborious unfolding of a new relationship between people and land.
    --Aldo Leopold
    ​There is in fact no distinction between the fate of the land and the fate of the people.  When one is abused, the other suffers.
    --Wendell Berry

    From the President

    SCP President Chuck Roe looked at land conservation along the route of John Muir's "Southern Trek."​
    ​READ ABOUT IT


    About Viewpoint

    This blog offers views of our Board and partners. We invite  your viewpoint on the following questions:
      --How can we work together to overcome isolation among groups working to protect and conserve land, water, wildlife, biodiversity, urban green spaces, productive farms and forests, and communities?
      --How can we devise means to conserve more natural and rural land resources in corporate ownership (even in "syndicated" partnership ownership)? Can that be done ethically, responsibly, effectively?
      --Is there substantive interest in creating a new regional association of nonprofit groups engaged in land conservation and environmental protection in the southern U.S.--for mutual support and exchange ?
      --Is there a need for a regional approach to promote, assess, recognize, and certify operational standards and practices, and performance excellence for nonprofit environmental resource conservation groups?

        Your thoughts on other topics are welcome as well. Email us to submit a "Viewpoint" essay.

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Southern Conservation Partners
​P.O. Box 33222,  Raleigh N.C. 27636-3222
    Phone: 919-500-6598
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