"Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads."
—Henry David Thoreau
Can you appreciate a mild Autumn evening where your family and a few neighbors collect around the fire-pit, under a clear starry night with hot dogs and smores?
Do you find peace and serenity after wandering the rough, wooded trails of a park?
Have you looked outside your office window, on a grey drowsy day, wishing you could go out and stand in the pouring rain?
Perhaps the latter doesn't sound so appealing as the first two but we can all acknowledge nature's power to connect us with ourselves and the undeniable fact that it connects us all.
Although there is plenty of practical experience of nature’s benefits on our mental and physical well being, the medical community is now starting to evaluate this nature-health relationship scientifically.
Dr. Nooshin Razani, the Center director at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital’s Center for Nature and Health has mentioned access to nature as a health equality issue.
"To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug."—Helen Keller
The effect of nature and community can help us heal and stay healthy.
"We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."—Native American proverb
A meaningful life allows us to benefit from nature's rich resources and empowers us to protect and nurture such abundance so that generations can enjoy its benefits as well.
“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.”
– John Muir