Nature for Healing and Wholeness

                                                   Along the Belleville Waterfront

1 Touch the earth lightly, use the earth gently,

nourish the life of the world in our care:

gift of great wonder, ours to surrender,

trust for the children tomorrow will bear.

4 God of all living, God of all loving,

God of the seedling, the snow and the sun,

teach us, deflect us, Christ reconnect us,

using us gently and making us one.

                                      Voices United 307

 From time to time our son Isaac, pastor at Trenton United Church, asks if I might visit a member of the congregation in Belleville Hospital. I am what the UCC terms a Voluntary Associate Minister with all the appropriate shots and paperwork.

This doesn't happen often because Isaac is a conscientious visitor to his flock but he lives and works half an hour away and we are five minutes from the Belleville Hospital. So. the other day I stopped in on two people, one in their eighties and the other not far off one hundred. Both have demanding medical needs but I was touched by their positive outlooks and determination to get back to church again. They both new me before the visits so we were able to chat openly and pray at the conclusion. 

The person in her late nineties is in a room overlooking the marvelous waterfront trail at the edge of the Bay of Quinte, an arm of Lake Ontario. Ruth and I regularly cycle along this path. We love the vistas but the view from several storeys up is spectacular on a sunny late Spring day. 

As I admired the view I commented that studies have shown that looking out to trees and water contributes to recovery for hospital patients. This charming person, remarkably lucid and engaged, agreed enthusiastically. It was obvious in our conversation that she loves the natural world, including the variety of birds at her home feeders. 

We have come to understand how important it is to encourage children to enjoy the outdoors and what we term Creation in our Christian faith. A friend and former parishioner is an interpreter at a Conservation Area not far away and he has commented on the ways in which kids open up to wonder in that setting. I've met children on the boardwalk there and even though I'm a total stranger they are bursting to share what they have seen and heard. 

Surely this is true throughout the seasons of life. And we should ensure that this is part of the design of our healthcare institutions. The Hospice facility for Quinte has rooms which open onto a green space with sliding patio doors in each room so that patients can experience nature to the very end of their days. 

I figure that Belleville Council should send a photographer to the roof of the hospital for photos to promote the city and this time of greening would be ideal. 

PS: As I write this blog entry the birch trees outside my study window are dancing in the breeze and I getting occasional whiffs of the nearby lilacs.