Ode to Nature

Nature is healing. The quiet, the green, the fresh air. Plants, trees, and dirt. If you're feeling down, look up to the clouds, the stars. Or climb up a mountain. 

Though I've loved living in New Orleans for over ten years, it is anxiety-inducing. It's like the collective rush and noise from so many people hangs in the air in the same way as the humidity in August. Even though the “Big Easy” is relatively relaxed, it's still there. 

Now, I'm living in a house surrounded by trees. I have a yard with space for B.G. to run. The air is not full of smog (or music from the neighbors’ Saturday night block party).  The stars are not blocked by city lights. We even got to view the Perseid Meteor Shower from our porch. (I had an alarm set for 2:30 AM, and B.G., who never stirs at my alarm on a regular morning, seemed to know that something special was happening. As soon as I was up, she was up. So she came out with us to see the stars too.)

It's a beautiful place to raise a child. She can run around on our large, wrap-around porch (our “backyard” in New Orleans was a parking lot). We venture into the woods together where we pick flowers and "dinosaur berries” (or in layman’s terms, crab apples), and she goes rock climbing.

It’s a relief to breathe.