3 Lessons from Daily Walks

A week of lessons from Nature

I have talked about my love and devotion to Mt. Tabor many times, and that love and devotion haven’t wavered. What has wavered is my ability to transition from being indoor to outdoors. I’m not sure when it began, but I went from leaving the house at 645-7 am every morning to walk up Mt. Tabor to barely being able to leave the house twice a week. I don’t want my executive dysfunction, depression, or anxiety to win so I am forcing myself outside of the house each day this month. I have a group coaching group on Discord for this exact thing. You can sign up here, and I will send you the link.

I am loving the Discord for many reasons:

1. Community. I love seeing where everyone is, learning about who they are in relation to the outdoors, and having meaningful conversations.

2. Accountability: I am checking in daily because I am running it and because I want to be present!

3. Intentionality. I am very aware and observant on my walks/times out of the house because I want to be able to report back in some fashion even if it’s just, they cut down some trees, and my heart aches for them.

4. Learning: I am learning a lot about myself and relearning to connect with Nature.

Hope

Spring, every year, gives me hope. Above is a photo of two type of lichen growing on a cherry tree up at Mt. Tabor.

While I refer to this park a lot, I’m not sure if I’ve really explained it within context. Mt. Tabor is an extinct (yes, extinct, not dormant. Mt. Hood is dormant. Mt. Tabor is extinct. Please don’t fight me. I will not be kind) volcano in the middle of SE Portland. There is a lot of traffic and other air pollution around. It is a forested escape in the middle of an otherwise busy area, and people from all over the city come to visit it.

Despite there being cars up there, cars down below, people setting off illegal fireworks, etc., there is still lichen. Lichen only grows with clean air. If you see lichen, you’re in a place with clean air. That, along with all of the blossoms of spring, gives me hope.

Resistance

Here are 2 medicines: plantain and purple dead nettle. They are easily identified and a staple in most forager toolkits that I know. They grow in place of lawns alongside dandelions. I can’t think of a better symbol for resistance than dandelions, tbh. They’re a medicine (though they’re so bitter, you won’t catch me ingesting them), and they are absolutely despised by the lawn culture vultures. Who better to piss off than a bunch of mediocre (White) men (and women) praising monoculture?

Walking around with intentionality, with my “eagle eyes” on (as we’d say to the kiddos), with an open heart and mind has allowed me to see what would otherwise blend in. These are considered weeds, all three of them, but the word weed is truly in the eye of the beholder. These are not weeds, but instead biodiversity, medicine, and a healthy patch of land in my lens.

I grew up on an organic, urban farm, and even though it was never explicitly talked about when I was a kid, I now know that my dad’s farm was resistance in and of itself. He has always used regenerative practices, gone the old route of farming forsaking almost everything new, including the seeds he uses. He’s an heirloom seed and heritage breeds type of guy.

Nature is bringing me back to this idea of resistance and that resistance doesn’t just look like signs and rallies. It looks like quieter action as well.

Change

Change is inevitable. My relationship, my need to be outdoors has shifted immensely. I am not sure that I am ever going to get back the same intense connection with Nature that I had between 2016 and 2020. Truly, I’m not sure I will, but that’s ok. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just different. So instead of pushing myself in a way that no longer feels deep and natural, I am allowing myself to experience the outdoors in a slower, more subtle way. This spring and summer, I am focusing on building a food garden. Will it feed us more than a meal? Probably not, but I am ready to follow quietly in my dad’s footsteps, starting out with what I have access to and allowing myself the permission to not go for broke in this venture.

I am incredibly grateful to

Sassy Latte

for helping and supporting me with this venture. I just want to grow some potatoes, strawbs, and a few greens, and it’s sort of overwhelming how much is needed just for those.

Nature changes, weather changes, seasons change, our climate is changing. Change is normal. Change is natural. I am learning to embrace change little by little.

How is your April going? What plans do you have for spring? Did any of this resonate with you? If you’d like to have more real-time discussions, consider joining the group coaching experience!

Wishing you well this week! May your life offer what you need in this moment.

With love,

Aventurine ✨

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