The Secret to Life

If you don’t know about the amazing Kate Bowler… you’re welcome! Her take on the “secret of life” (yup, for real) is one of the best I’ve ever heard. (Click on the image to hear it)

Nurdles

“Tiny plastic pellets called nurdles – each about the size of a lentil – are washing up on Texas beaches in alarming quantities. These pre-production plastics are the raw material used to make everyday items like bags and bottles. But when they spill during manufacturing or transport, they escape into the environment, becoming one of the most widespread sources of microplastic pollution.”

Turtle Island Restoration Network

This is a scary situation I knew nothing about. These little pieces of plastic “act like tiny sponges, absorbing toxic chemicals such as pesticides and heavy metals”. So it’s not just that we take in microplastics by eating fish that have confused these objects with food, we also consume the poisons the nurdles have absorbed.

A reminder that forest bathing is wonderful (and so easy)

I spent some time yesterday in a park near my home and, while there, decided to try the Japanese practice of shinrin yoku, known in English as “forest bathing.”  (Which is therapeutically known as sylvotherapy!) 

It’s a practice that involves all five senses, one by one, intentionally… 

• Listening to sounds, birds, insects, wind in the leaves
• Touching the ground, the trees, and the leaves.
• Smelling flowers, plants, the dirt  
• Seeing plants, birds, animals, clouds.. 
• Tasting by breathing through your mouth

If you work in a hospital or another building, a small green area or a single tree will suffice. 

Even a few minutes can be transformative.