Just add water – Just add trees

A bloke rang in to speak with Ian ‘Macca’ McNamara, Australia All Over (ABC Radio 6 Aug. 23) to say he found that a way to help ease our troubled minds is, to what he called, JUST ADD WATER.

Living on the coast and being a keen surfer, he found that when young people who had a troubled life were introduced to the ocean and encouraged to take the plunge – to perhaps even learn to ride a surf board – they were better able to deal with life’s ups and downs.  In other words, their mental health was managed not by drugs and institutional therapy but by being in touch with nature – in this case the ocean.

How many times have we heard that nature has healing powers. Forest bathing and forest therapy are well known ways to head off the blues and recalibrate the brain.

For balance, for purpose, for sanity, for reassurance, for repair, for connection, as with JUST ADD WATER we can confidently say, JUST ADD TREES, JUST ADD BUSH, JUST ADD GARDENING – JUST ADD MUNIBUNG HILL or whatever happens to be our local patch of wild nature, where we can find ourselves, by losing ourselves, in the presence of the myriad other species we co-exist with.

MMM … Issue 40, October – November 2023