Hi Susie! Late to the show here as I just read your page. I too went to summer camp for many years. (Camp Fire Girls)
I always enjoyed being outdoors swimming, hiking, sailing, canoeing, fire building. As an adult, I love walking at our metro park here in the Midwest. Living on a lake is also a calming environment which makes it near impossible to get household tasks completed! 😂😂. They do get done, begrudgingly . 😉
I totally get the need for being outdoors: Calming, close to nature, it sometimes brings me close to tears.
I don’t understand it, but you described it perfectly! Thank you. 🥰👍🏼
Hi Maryellen and welcome to Sixburnersue - so glad to have you here! I love the sounds of your life on the lake. It must feel like camp all the time! And yes - being close to nature - it sometimes is very emotional, isn't it? thank you for weighing in!
I loved this! Nature is the best place for me to take away any troubles I have. As I walk and see bunnies, birds, tress, anything in nature, it is all I can focus on. I am also grateful you brought up the state of our democracy. Thank you Camp for Grown-Ups
Hi Josie! And you have one of the most beautiful places on earth to get outside! I hope you are well and can have some "camp" moments without thinking about the state of our democracy!
It's a good think we had the outdoors, right? Without that we would really have been sunk! Thanks, Dee. And I'm glad you had Boy Scout Camp - so great.
You captured summer and camp so well, you took me to place a wanted to be. The breezes, low tide, flowers, thank you! I was right there with you. Loved my memories as well.
Susan, it's good to channel those memories I find, to remember all the good things we have experienced. We'll never exactly recapture them, but we can recreate similar experiences that bring us joy and peace.
Lovely. My Chinese medicine/acupuncturist healer told me in Chinese medicine, labels aren't put on people - ADHD, bipolar, etc. I see so many friends and their spouses and children drugged to the gills to contain these diagnoses, and then I see the side effects, which are then also treated! Clearly, to me, my treatment is what you describe: immersing myself in walks, the gardens, my pets, more walks, the bay, birds and other wildlife - and yes, books and reading too. No screens other than in tiny well-reasoned doses. No more mainstream media at all. The Chinese healer says I'm a "wood" person (as he, a sailor, is also). The "prescription?" Activity and absorption in and by nature! Yay!
I’ve been involved in TCM as well, Qigong, acupuncture. And the green outdoors is definitely healing. Good to see other understand this and can appreciate.
Oh yeah, Qigong too. My husband, two indoor cats, and golden retriever had a long yoga, Qigong, and savasana this morning. Heaven. When I say, "Yoga" after my morning walk, the animals race upstairs to the yoga mats. My husband dawdles but likes it all too. Do you all feel the chi when you do Qigong? Years ago, I took workshops in Port Townsend and Canada, and I really feel the chi when we do those moves! There are energies we can't even see, right? But we need to be alive and awake to feel them.
Kirie, I really like that and it is helpful to me to hear all this. I think it’s sometimes hard for us in this society to be self-aware and have the courage to go towards the solutions that would come naturally to us if it weren’t for all the noise and opinions in the world. I know when I got sober, I came to understand that I had to spend time outside for my mental health. Thanks as always for weighing in!
There's certainly a magic in the trees, flowers, and bees - their wild nature, their connection to God/Spirit, their ability to remind us of our roots. You describe it well!
I know what you mean. I need a walk or a swim each day so badly I get almost frantic, and yes, getting out finger paint and doing a painting using sticks and rocks to add texture counts too - so that’s a yes to the crafts. Outside I become part of a world so much bigger than my tiny self that I just… join it. I try to keep the deer from my tomatoes, but if the raccoons then get in anyway (how I can’t figure) and dig through my carrots it’s frustrating but it’s not personal. I dig out weeds while recognizing they’ve got more right to grow in my garden than the plants I’ve chosen. Now and again I reach that state where I can feel the sun on my skin and the coolness of the breeze and even the texture of the salt borne in the air and find myself warm and slightly chilly and sticky at the same time. It’s real and immediate and grounding, and it would all happen whether I was there to experience it or not. It’s very calming to not be needed and uplifting to be part of something so vast.
Heather, that is so beautiful - I’m right there with you all the way. I especially like your last line, because it is such a relief to be part of something bigger without having to worry about micromanaging your contribution! Thank you for this lovely comment and for reading!
To all this: YES
😀
Hi Susie! Late to the show here as I just read your page. I too went to summer camp for many years. (Camp Fire Girls)
I always enjoyed being outdoors swimming, hiking, sailing, canoeing, fire building. As an adult, I love walking at our metro park here in the Midwest. Living on a lake is also a calming environment which makes it near impossible to get household tasks completed! 😂😂. They do get done, begrudgingly . 😉
I totally get the need for being outdoors: Calming, close to nature, it sometimes brings me close to tears.
I don’t understand it, but you described it perfectly! Thank you. 🥰👍🏼
Maryellen
Hi Maryellen and welcome to Sixburnersue - so glad to have you here! I love the sounds of your life on the lake. It must feel like camp all the time! And yes - being close to nature - it sometimes is very emotional, isn't it? thank you for weighing in!
Susie
So perfectly said.
Thank you Jane!
I loved this! Nature is the best place for me to take away any troubles I have. As I walk and see bunnies, birds, tress, anything in nature, it is all I can focus on. I am also grateful you brought up the state of our democracy. Thank you Camp for Grown-Ups
Hi Josie! And you have one of the most beautiful places on earth to get outside! I hope you are well and can have some "camp" moments without thinking about the state of our democracy!
For me it was Boy Scout camp—every summer for 7-8 years built a formidable love of the outdoors. Loved the essay Susie 🙏
It's a good think we had the outdoors, right? Without that we would really have been sunk! Thanks, Dee. And I'm glad you had Boy Scout Camp - so great.
You captured summer and camp so well, you took me to place a wanted to be. The breezes, low tide, flowers, thank you! I was right there with you. Loved my memories as well.
Susan, it's good to channel those memories I find, to remember all the good things we have experienced. We'll never exactly recapture them, but we can recreate similar experiences that bring us joy and peace.
Substack gives a log of opportunities. I sure enjoy it and appreciate the folks who post here. Beautious.
Lovely. My Chinese medicine/acupuncturist healer told me in Chinese medicine, labels aren't put on people - ADHD, bipolar, etc. I see so many friends and their spouses and children drugged to the gills to contain these diagnoses, and then I see the side effects, which are then also treated! Clearly, to me, my treatment is what you describe: immersing myself in walks, the gardens, my pets, more walks, the bay, birds and other wildlife - and yes, books and reading too. No screens other than in tiny well-reasoned doses. No more mainstream media at all. The Chinese healer says I'm a "wood" person (as he, a sailor, is also). The "prescription?" Activity and absorption in and by nature! Yay!
I’ve been involved in TCM as well, Qigong, acupuncture. And the green outdoors is definitely healing. Good to see other understand this and can appreciate.
Oh yeah, Qigong too. My husband, two indoor cats, and golden retriever had a long yoga, Qigong, and savasana this morning. Heaven. When I say, "Yoga" after my morning walk, the animals race upstairs to the yoga mats. My husband dawdles but likes it all too. Do you all feel the chi when you do Qigong? Years ago, I took workshops in Port Townsend and Canada, and I really feel the chi when we do those moves! There are energies we can't even see, right? But we need to be alive and awake to feel them.
Kirie, I really like that and it is helpful to me to hear all this. I think it’s sometimes hard for us in this society to be self-aware and have the courage to go towards the solutions that would come naturally to us if it weren’t for all the noise and opinions in the world. I know when I got sober, I came to understand that I had to spend time outside for my mental health. Thanks as always for weighing in!
Love this…
There's certainly a magic in the trees, flowers, and bees - their wild nature, their connection to God/Spirit, their ability to remind us of our roots. You describe it well!
Thank you Katie. It is definitely a feeling that is hard to describe but it’s there!
I know what you mean. I need a walk or a swim each day so badly I get almost frantic, and yes, getting out finger paint and doing a painting using sticks and rocks to add texture counts too - so that’s a yes to the crafts. Outside I become part of a world so much bigger than my tiny self that I just… join it. I try to keep the deer from my tomatoes, but if the raccoons then get in anyway (how I can’t figure) and dig through my carrots it’s frustrating but it’s not personal. I dig out weeds while recognizing they’ve got more right to grow in my garden than the plants I’ve chosen. Now and again I reach that state where I can feel the sun on my skin and the coolness of the breeze and even the texture of the salt borne in the air and find myself warm and slightly chilly and sticky at the same time. It’s real and immediate and grounding, and it would all happen whether I was there to experience it or not. It’s very calming to not be needed and uplifting to be part of something so vast.
Heather, that is so beautiful - I’m right there with you all the way. I especially like your last line, because it is such a relief to be part of something bigger without having to worry about micromanaging your contribution! Thank you for this lovely comment and for reading!
I loved my camp too!
Thank God for camp, right?!