Nature Walks: Embrace Change and Find Peace

Simplicity is the beauty of nature and silence is its fragrance. – Nitin Namdeo

When on a forest therapy walk we don’t teach or study the names of plants and flowers and trees. We don’t need to worry about anything so focused when experiencing nature. But it is interesting to note some of the plants and wildlife we are surrounded by every so often.

Following are a list of the fall flowers of Saskatchewan natural grasslands. Have you seen these or anything else on your forest walks? Let me know in the comments.

Owl’s Clover

Showy Sunflower

Brown eyed Susan

Prairie Sage

Canada Goldenrod

Common Broomweed

White Prairie Aster

Dotted Blazing Star

Tufted Fleabane

Join me in taking the time now to become familiar with plants and wildlife so when we are on the trail it can be a passing thought that connects us but not to the point that we need our phone out to ask Siri. Learn some this year and some next.

The trees are about to show us how lovely it is to let things go. – Unknown

What can you learn from nature as it shows us the beauty of change and letting go?

Living with chronic illness/ pain/ fatigue requires change in us. A change in perspective and a change in plans. A change in friends and purpose. When we block that change we can create more difficulties and pain. When we yield to changes that need to be made we are like the fall tree shedding its leaves. Nothing has gone wrong. This is the next step. The thought of a tree holding its leaves in a death grip with the season is ridiculous. Is our holding on any less so?

The changes we need to make can be devastating and forever change who we are. Yet there is beauty in the change. When you looked into the weather worn skin of your mom or grandma, did you see wrinkles that needed to be smoothed? Or did you see the life they have lived in those lines? Laugh lines. Perplexed lines. Worry lines. Cry lines. All the lines of a life well lived.

I remember my grandma’s big crooked knuckles. I didn’t ever think they needed to be straight and small. They were part of her hands. They worked hard washing dishes, making pies, and keeping a clean house. They read books to me. They gave me treats for the horses. They taught me how to peel an apple. Those hands played the piano like nobody’s business. Those hands were perfect to me.

What changes are taking place in your life that may appear ugly to you but are actually just knuckles getting crooked or wrinkles being set? Is it possible that those changes appear to others like the changing of the fall leaves? Marvelous. Brilliant. Timely. Radiant.

Living a life with chronic disease requires something from a person. A bending of the will. Being taken from a healthy version of one’s self and changing to a version that may be difficult to understand. To navigate. To love.

I find when I bend to the discomfort and the disappointments and the disasters left in my wake as I just have to lay down, I am better able to see the beauty of the changes. I see what my family has learned in my “absence”. I have a better perspective of the big picture and I don’t get so focused on the details. I can be grateful for all the good.

Time spent forest bathing increases my capacity to see the good. There is so much of it out there. Enjoy your forest walks and if you need help to take it all in, let me know. Reach out to me on my contacts page.

I love crowds. Of trees.