The community garden at Hoʻoulu ʻĀina.
Today folk from Trenton United Church will enjoy a contemplative walk through an urban park, culminating with an outdoor celebration of communion which I will lead. Well, that was the plan, and why not? Last year on this date the sun shone and the temperature was balmy. We're just grateful that the power is still on since everything is coated in freezing rain and it's still coming down. Oh, Canada!
Shall we go to Hawaii instead? I've noticed and written about the growing number of initiatives to get people outside and, if possible, moving as an aspect of healing. Everything from Forest Bathing, to PaRX prescriptions, to outdoor schools for children. As the population of Planet Earth becomes more urban we're realizing the restorative power of Nature/Creation for the health of body, mind, and spirit.
Children washed turmeric at the preserve.
It's a tonic to read in the New York Times about a clinic developed over the past few decades on what had been derelict land in Hawaii. Just the title of the piece is uplifting: At This Clinic in Hawaii, Nature Is the Medicine. Here a few paragraphs from the piece written by Cara Buckley, with photographs and video by Marie Eriel Hobro:
The air is filled with birdsong, the land a tableau of soft greens and gentle light. This is Ho‘oulu ‘Āina, a 100-acre preserve with an unusual twist. Linked to a community health center, it is a place where patients come to heal the land, and themselves.
Twenty years ago, Ho‘oulu ‘Āina was neglected, overrun with garbage and invasive plants. But today, it’s thriving. And the volunteers and patients who spend long hours there, removing nonnative plants and growing vegetables, fruit and herbs, have experienced a restoration of body and soul.
There is growing research that shows how spending time in nature can improve mental, physical and cognitive health, something that the stewards of Ho‘oulu ‘Āina have seen firsthand.
Older people once dependent on canes and walkers have regained some mobility. Diabetics have seen their glucose levels drop. Depressed teens have grown bright-eyed. In Hawaiian, the name Ho‘oulu ‘Āina means “to grow because of the land,” and they have.
“Many people within the health center saw the land as a means to improve human health, sort of a tool,” said Puni Jackson, the program director at Ho‘oulu ‘Āina. But for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, who make up a majority of patients at the clinic, the connection to nature is familial and profound, Ms. Jackson said. “It’s a sacred relationship,” she said.
A sacred relationship. More and more I feel that we've missed an essential aspect of the gospel message, or at least downplayed that Jesus did a lot of his best work en plein air, as I suggested to anxiety researcher Dr. Holli-Anne Passmore earlier this year.
It wasn't just that Jesus changed lives as a healer, he did so outside. He had eye-opening conversations with his disciples as they rambled and climbed. The gospel writers tell us that Jesus took time for restoration and deep listening to God on hillsides, alone. As we make our way through Lent toward Holy Week we are mindful that the last hours before his arrest were spent in an olive grove.
As I look out my study window I see the ice glistening on the waving branches of a birch tree. It is actually lovely, but in my mind I'm on my way to Ho‘oulu ‘Āina. We'll have our Trenton UC sacred ramble eventually!
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