Practicing Gratitude 


It could be argued, that in 2020, never was there a greater need, and search, for coping mechanisms.  While the whole world went into shock, and slowly, painfully, got used to a quiet, fearful year which pulled many together as well as ripped many apart, one saving grace is that we were able to live more slowly. Devoid of all our normal plans and routine we could search outside of our lives for something to look at, learn from, distract and maybe gain a little joy from. I’m writing naturally, about the ‘great outdoors’.

     
 














Having moved to a new city at the start of the year I was forced to leave it behind again and retreat home to lockdown in March. Living in a more rural area with a garden, and more access to nature I discovered that amongst all this human suffering, we experienced one of the best Springs on record.  Bountiful sunshine, produce, and plants made us realize that the natural world was just ...carrying on, even thriving without us.  I am grateful to have experienced lockdown with even a small garden to pace about and examine in between bouts of pain and anxiety, which is what these images are about- practicing gratitude. It does help – to collect the good around you and say ‘look, everything is awful, but at least there is this’ The major ‘this’ last year, was the natural world.





I have always known and been an advocate of the benefits of experiencing nature for our mental health, and so when the pandemic hit us at full force I invested in nurture. I grew flowers and gardened almost every day, I built planters and crafted with my parents, I walked and walked and walked and found that, other people were doing this too. At first I felt a little put out- surely, these were My paths, My places, how dare other people know about them? This is ridiculous of course, I was grateful that now on the weekends – families were taking the chance to explore their local area that they’ve lived in for years and were just now discovering that they never knew these fields, forests, paths and streams existed. Even I found new places to discover, just walking for an hour, then more as the months went on.  It was therapy, it was salvation, and I was grateful.




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