Quick! Escape to the Woods
Your 10 minute Relax Reset. Spend the morning with me in the garden and the afternoon in the woods.
Oh spring. How you stop me in my tracks, urging me- I mean my dog, to lie on a blanket and enjoy your vivacious outcropping of color and growing life. Our garden is springing forth with flowers of all kinds, lavender buds, tulips, purple-dripping Larkspur and long white wild-somethings with leaves so delicate and soft its as if God himself used a fine paintbrush to delicately “whoosh” out their petals. My soul breathes. differently as I walk among the flowers. Its as if I, another living thing have also come to where I am rooted. As I run my hands over the spiny leaves of the almost-budding sunflowers I feel what a marvelous feeling it is to grow!
I sit writing to you in a comfortable chair in the 70 degree sun surrounded by the tiniest of milky white and pale yellow butterflies flitting throughout the garden, the garden I should point out is my husbands incredible genius and love letter to me (my genius and reply lies in sunbathing naked in it while he works).
The butterflies unofficial meeting places center heavily on a row of barely-blooming orange flowers and 3ft tall daintily-flowered broccolini. They come in droves, heavenly confetti drifting up and down in festive and non-sensical looking droves..
Mouthgasm - What We Are Eating
What a milestone day for our tastebuds. The first homegrown strawberry from the garden is ready to eat. Well, the first strawberry ready that hasn’t been filched by an impatient little boy playing in the garden.
After weeks of diligently checking the progress of 3 varieties of strawberry plants. (Yes, there’s wayyyyy more than one “type” of strawberry) Dustin found a perfect one. He waited until our children were occupied with nonsense to present me with my gift, so I wouldnt have to share my good fortune. Bless that man.
I bit into the fiercely red berry still warm from the sun and closed my eyes as the glorious sweetness enveloped my mouth. The soft fruit was unlike supermarket produce, completely devoid of a hard outer skin or tart center. I simply cannot remember a time my mouth has been happier (today, at least) How could I resist giving my gift-giver a bite? “Don’t eat the whole thing” I warned as I handed half of the treasured berry over to Dustin before I greedily and euphorically ate the remaining reminder that sweeter days are coming.
I’m fascinated by how eating food straight out of the ground makes me feel so… alive! As someone diagnosed with ADD and Anxiety I never expected food to transform my productivity and just my overall “give a fuck” about doing menial tasks like the dishes. But here I am, hyped as FUCK for chores, a previous dread. It wasn’t the one strawberry that did it, its not adderall y’all but…
Tales from the Farmacy
In my own heavily researched experiences, when it comes to waking up my motivated, powerful, inner Queen of England nothing gets rid of a bout of “depression brain” quite like a smoothie made with an abundance of homegrown spinach.
3 days in a row + 1 smoothie a day = a less stressed and more positive outlook for my tired mom brain and overworked body.
The science of the spinach smoothie happy boost holds up. Why? Spinach contains this lovely naturally-occurring version of vitamin B9 called folate which I’ve found (supported by research by MIT) an eye-rollingly amazing tool in my all toolbox for warding off my Covid depression.
Our Afternoon
Lying in the woods is another way my soul feels like it can breathe freely without a mask. Our family adventures have been a source of sunshine-filled whimsy. By the time homeschooling and breakfast are done and the sun has cleared the outcropping of trees across the field from our house. Its time for the question of the day! “What should we do today!” Our eyes light up with glee at the sheer option of socially-distanced outdoor options.
Lately we’ve been opting to lay low, spending time in low ground, that is. Craving the comfort and cool of the overhead foliage of birch, oak, pines and evergreens. The ground is smattered with wild Rabbit-Eye blueberry bushes and budding white magnolia trees, intoxicating the forest in a sweet-smelling bouquet
Aaah, the woods, its as relaxing as Walmart is horrible. Hiding from people is a hobby of mine and what better way to be left alone in quiet pleasure with a book for a bit than somewhere unseen, of origin unknown, except to us? A mere tromp in boots from the farmhouse, the woods on our property have been a perfect place for a mid-day picnic and a small, contained fire to burn off fallen limbs and dead trees. Clearing way for the possibility of something more here one day soon.
The best way to heal from the the damage of the outside world is to recede into a better one. Into a timeless “background” forgotten by society; that of the natural green world.
So accustomed are we to living in concrete fish bowls we forget how comforting it is to our psyche to be cocooned in a forest of green, especially after having your shit rocked.
When your life feels inexplicably broken around you I can recommend no better place to find perspective than in a swath of woods, a fairy bubble of wonder. One needs only look at the yellow jasmine ensconsing a dead tree in her wild and brammbly flowers to know death is not a true end but merely a catalyst for the next adventure.
I’ll leave you with what the woods left me this week. The knowledge that your failures do not entomb you like a sarcophagus intended for you to be buried in. Whatever is currently happening to you that is bad, chaotic, or plain not working out, remember the “bad thing” may merely be the first layer of compost necessary to build your next beautiful new whatever.
Keep on the sunny side,
Cait