Tree Teaching for Dull Depressing Days
Usually I include a film too but I am having technical difficulties so I will publish this now and then update when I have the audio and film ready for the forest bathing meditation!
It has been unremittingly dreary, dark, dingy, dank, dire, #depressing, dull, dismal and damp. These are the days I call “D days”. The flat grey cloud days have a mouldering wet blanket type of a feel to them. There is a heaviness to this type of day where there is no clarity. There is no rain, no wind, no storm, no snow, no hail, no sun. There is nothing to define the day, no feeling of transformation, of time or happening. All there is, is this low hanging grey cloud draining the colour out of everything. We humans need an expression of some small thing at least so we can live in the moment and then see the opposite. If there is frost we get to appreciate the ice crystals and then warmth going back indoors. If there is rain we can watch the puddles splashing and twigs dripping and look to the sun to cast its reflections.
It’s hard to photograph trees when it’s like this as they so often end up as black silhouettes against a grey sky. The grey seems to drain everything of colour and energy. It’s hard to feel inspired and energised when it’s so dull and lifeless. What to do when the days are endlessly grey?
Ever heard the phrase small mercies? Well that is what we are looking at this week. When things seem interminable it’s good to remember change is inevitable. Sometimes all we can do is wait. It’s a lesson in patience.
So, walking slowly as the day seemed to dictate, I mooched with Bella who seemed to feel the same, as she dawdled and stopped occasionally to sniff some post, paw print or plant on the way. The flat grey cloud seemed to suck out all sound and light.
Then unbidden the sun appeared and splashed everything with light. The trees lit up against the dark land behind and stood like luminous sentries to an otherworldly gateway.
I walked towards the trees their trunks casting shadows crisscrossing each other. My feet cracking sticks as I walked through dead grass, the wind susurrating through the trees that looked as though I had caught them mid dance. We walked in the light as the birds sang. Then the cloud came down once more and all was dark. And there it was, a small mercy, a glimpse of sunshine on a dark day....
I wanted to share this with you from AST member Sharon Chambers:
“Encounters.
I walked, as one does, in a bid to lose a black hound #depression that was nipping at my heels. In some parkland I passed a man who said, out of the blue, "have you ever seen a tawny owl?" I hadn't. He led me to a nearby tall old tree, lent me his binoculars and pointed out the fluffed up owl high in a holed out branch. I thanked the man for giving me this happiness and carried on my way. I looked back, half expecting him to not be there at all and that it was in fact an encounter with an angel. I certainly felt much better for the meeting - and for the owl.
(it is not a good picture - I did not have a good lens for that high tree. Frampton on Severn. It has been living there for some time apparently - has a family there each year as well, I believe)."
Safe guarding our #mentalhealth is important and #nature is proven to help with our #health and #wellbeing. I am writing a tree teaching post and producing a forest bathing audio meditation each week. If you join us here it's free and you get a regular newsletter full of PositiviTree etc.
Tree Teaching Tuesday with #forestbathing #meditation, Wednesday #WildWisdom #Rewilding human #Soul #Stories (first published in the newsletters but now on this blog) followed by Tree Blessings and Prayers on Sundays. So you can follow the theme for the whole week for free! Join my journey through the year with #trees. Keep a look out too for my tree tours and other things coming soon. Simply sign up to the blog here.
AST celebrates PositviTree for CommuniTree because good mental health means happy people and planet.
Blessings Amanda Claire x
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