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Hey wow hi its June 2024 and I am here writing another June blog-I feel very lucky.

Such a difference a year makes, last June I wrote about water and there was such a lack of it in our world in MN.  Now we have a literal overflow.  Nature, she chooses, and we are sometimes along for the ride. The green is spectacular in the trees, plants and grasses.  The smell and feel of rain helps me find my center in my soul.  

I am grateful for walking on squishy ground and soggy sidewalks.  As I notice the opposite, I am super smiley when I feel the sun on my face and soak up the rays of her warmth.  Summer brings all of this and more.  Opportunities to hear nature, feel cool breezes, hear birds chirping, and see some much life all around us.  

I have been lucky on my way to the barn at Hold Your Horses to watch eagle parents raise two babies in a big nest next to the road.  The last week I have seen the eaglets standing on the side of the nest looking out over the horizon.  I believe they are just fledging and learning to fly-I can’t wait.  Now they look like they just rolled out of bed with their bed head and funky feathers coming in.  I hope I can stand on the edge of my comfort zone each day and continue to learn to soar and fly with whatever life hands me.

What helps you to land deeper in your soul?

How do you relate to the sound of raindrops on your skin?

How can you keep flying even when the rain pounds hard on your skin?

In blessings for summer and each of you I offer you dewy rain that kisses your toes as you walk on the morning grass.

Molly

What does it even mean to connect with Nature? Being that we all have our own unique way we navigate the world and how we see the world, there is a plethora of ways to connect with nature.

Do you stop and watch the ant crawling on the sidewalk? stand in awe of the moon as it rises each night? feel the breeze touch your cheek on a windy day? listen to the crashing of the waves of lake superior?

So many ways to connect. For some it is laying on the earth and sensing into nourishment of the grounding energy. Or for others it is leaning against a tree and feeling into it’s cellular rhythm. Or do you like to find a big lava rock (like those in the boundary waters) and allow the whole weight of your body to give way to the support of it’s sturdiness? Perhaps you are very mindful of how you take in connection with nature. However, it is not necessary to sign up for a forest bathing class or work hard to get the benefits of nature. Did you know that (according to a study by the University of Essex) that just 5 minutes in nature can significantly start to reduce stress levels? Being in nature can have many health benefits like reducing anxiety, lowering blood pressure, enhancing immune system function, and boosting self esteem and mood.

So- take advantage of your lunch break, eat outside, step out to get the mail during the day, stand outside when you let the dog out, bring greenery into your office or home, move your workout outside, do yoga in the park. Let yourself explore and take in nature the way it works for you.

If you would like some guided immersion into the natural world- join us at one of our workshops. There will be plenty of opportunity to commune with nature. We would love to have you come out and play with us at Eastman Nature Center on June 7th. Hope to see you there!

I travelled to see the eclipse in totality this month. The experience of taking it in through all of the sense is so different than seeing it on a screen. The visual, of course, is spectacular but there is more. The sensation of the temperature dropping, it becoming darker in the middle of the day, the songs of the birds changing from their normal chatter all add to the experience. In the pasture I was sitting in, the cows broke through the fence and the snakes became very active in the pond, moving like lightening to and fro. It seemed as if there was a void of time, 4 minutes of a pause, of possibility, the possibility of shifting something that seemed permanent. The felt sense of reality as we know it, to actually be an illusion, woven in the tapestry of something much bigger than us and what we know. And then the eclipse is complete and we are back in the pasture, trees dotting the landscape, we are breathing the air, listening to the cows moo, back to our own thoughts but yet somehow changed. Changed once again by the power and magnificence of nature.

Snow

Cool               White         Cleansing

Crisp           Quiet

Fresh             Silent             New

Delighting in the beauty of the magical shapes of the snowflake

Falling silently

Feeling into the freshness

Sensing into the bite of the crisp air

Basking in the clean slate of the whole earth being blanketed with white

Melting away everything and clearing the cells of the brain, the body

Dropping into the whiteness

Stillness

Refreshed

Love

Love

Love

Feeling so much gratitude for the gift nature shared with us this spring

Join us in June for our next Restorative Workshop- as we revel in the changing season and light of summer. Hope to see you at Eastman Nature Center on June 7th.

Early Spring Blog:

Happy Spring although winter felt fleeting.  I had the opportunity to visit San Diego a few weeks ago to speak at a conference.  A great place to walk and visit with nature.  Kayaking seeing harbor seals and many shore birds was such fun.  I am sharing one photo with this beautiful tree I hung out with.  I was reminded that anywhere I go I can seek out and be with nature in any form that shows up.  I was with a colleague, and she said let’s just show up there and not make any plans for our free time, well I thought okay yet I just made one small shift to make a reservation for kayaking and it turned out to be big fun.  In this non planning nature crept in as she always does and we danced with the sea, curled up with the trees, was kissed by the sun and greeted by many amazing canines.  I have gratitude for being able to get away, share knowledge in our workshop about working with horses for healing and walk upon the earth in a new location.  I hope you are able to be outside, get kissed by the sun, walk tenderly upon the earth, and enjoy and engage nature-as nature surely does nurture!

As we go into March with sunshine and warmth, please consider joining us for our one-day restorative workshop in Apple Valley on Friday March 22^nd.  Come join us as we welcome spring and find balance in our lives. Even though it was a unique winter, nature still knows and can teach us a few things about finding balance in our lives. 

This Authentic Restoration Workshop is a self-care experience to refresh your life force energy and step into an authentic alignment with yourself. Discover where your energy is stuck and connect with your capacity to balance through mindful exploration in nature, movement, body focused activities and self-inquiry.   

Please see more information and sign up on our website, amidstthetrees.com

Dancing into spring,

Molly D

Waldeinsamkeit is the feeling of unique solitude while being alone in the woods, a feeling of connectedness to nature; a union with the ancient rhythms of the Earth. It is a German word that when translated directly means loneliness and woods; however has a much greater meaning of connectedness and the sense of inner peace while communing in the woods. Lisa, Molly and I spent a recent weekend practicing the connectedness to nature, the regeneration of our energy, the settledness of coming in the our bodies with settling into the snow- yes we went far enough north to find snow and cold.

There is a sense of wonder in the feeling of being grounded in snow. A sense of peace and quiet and coming into the rhythm of the winter, a replenishing and slowing down. A getting ready for the next germinating phase or thing in our life while taking time to rest, relax and find again our own rhythm and pace

We played in the trees, on the trees and surrounded by trees. All the while connecting with the consciousness of the trees and joining with them in the joy of being, nothing to accomplish, no deadlines, just “being” connected in the web of life. It is amazing how something so simple can shift your perspective and restore your energy. Trees don’t really care how cold it is and we practiced sharing that sentiment.

Whether you have a week, a weekend, a day or a few hours. We hope you can get out and enjoy the connection to nature and all it can bring to you. If you have a day, consider joining us for our next workshop or even the retreat next fall. We can practice waldeinsamkeit and learn to make it a practice in our daily life.

Happy new year, as I sit and reflect on 2023 it has zipped by. Last year I was enjoying a snowy wintery walk during this time in Northern Michigan. Now I look outside to green grass and bare trees. I am amazed always by mother nature. On a walk in the woods this morning I crunched on the leaves, noticed the faces in the trees and reflected on how each day brings unique gifts in the out of doors. I remember I am not in control of what nature will bring, I participate with nature and appreciate getting to walk on the planet each day and the rest shifts each moment. Please take some time to be with your own nature and know that the ground, the sky, the water and trees have your back and support each of you on your journey in the world. Enjoy the video taken last new years in the Petosky Michigan area. Please consider joining Lisa Shelly and I in our authentic restoration workshops and retreat in 2024. Our first workshop is Friday January 26th at camp Sacajawea in Aplle Valley, MN. we would love to see you then.

Molly

Can we follow the rhythm of nature? 

Listen to the earth, observe the barren trees?  Notice the brown leaves on the ground. Can you peacefully accept the letting go – of that which no longer serves you and your place in the world? Just as the natural world goes through a cycle of ending, death and dying- can you honor that which is ready to be shed from you? In order to grow we must release something.

As we move into the winter season, again notice the ice forming, the earth cooling, sense into the dormancy of the freeze.  Will you allow for the forced rest of winter?  Will you push past it?  Nature guides us into a time of necessary quiet.  Will you take the opportunity to pause and honor that which has come before this moment, reflect, and clear space?  The dark time can be a time to rest into the peacefulness of winter. 

Blessings to all of you as you transition into this time of hibernation.

If you would like to continue to explore the gifts of nature, join us on January 26^th at our restorative workshop as we deepen into internal reflection and ponder what dreams are stirring in the stillness.

Some people could be given an entire field of roses and only see the thorns in it. Others could be given a single weed and only see the wildflower in it. Perception is a key component to gratitude. And gratitude is a key component to joy.

-amy weatherlt

In this time of fall, harvest, abundance and getting ready for the winter ahead may we find time to be grateful. May we share that gratitude with others and extend it out into the world. May our moments of gratitude help feed our soul and replenish us and those around us. May our hearts be full, open and kind and spread gratitude to others. May the gratitude spread like wild fire and create more open hearts and kindness. May we all know more gratitude, joy, and peace.

We had a peaceful time at our October workshop. At each workshop we spend a chunk of time outside with nature and the October workshop was no different, except there was a steady downpour throughout the day. The theme of the workshop was gratitude and the element we were clearing with was water. So nature blessed us with water to ease the drought, for which there is gratitude, and an abundance of water to help us clear what gets in the way of being grateful. Thank you to all of the participants who splashed in the puddles, danced in the rain and took time to replenish themselves. Our next workshop is in January please consider joining us in the snow.