A lot is being written these days about the importance of getting into nature to balance our daily angst over how humanity is ruining the planet. The Japanese have codified the practice and call it “forest bathing.”
Back in 2017 we had an explosion of wildflowers following the weirdest and most alarming presidential election ever. The blossoming of plant life after a five-year drought was the most uplifting, hopeful, and effective balm in assuring people we’d somehow come through this intact. Now with more existential angst over the pandemic, the climate crisis, ongoing droughts, nuclear proliferation, homelessness, election interference, a plunging economy and a dreaded second term, I once more encourage people to get out into our 25,000 acres of protected wilderness, lose the face masks, breath the mentholated coastal sage, and witness the riot of colors, shapes, textures and smells that are about to be birthed.
They’re coming for us – the sunflower, morning glory, sagebrush, clover, dodder, golden bush, gooseberry, paintbrush, poppy, yarrow, deerweed, manzanita, monkeyflower, buckwheat, prickly pear, mustard, bladderpod, lupine, popcorn, bluebells, Laguna Beach Live-Forevers, and along with them the insects, bees and entire animal kingdom.
The perfect, regenerative, whole system that naturalists and permaculturists seek to replicate in how we live our daily lives. Take this medicine once a day and you can fight off virtually any mental or physical imbalance, and you’ll be reminded of how lucky we are to live in this coastal paradise.
Billy Fried, Laguna Beach
Correction: Wow, what a difference a day makes. I wrote this letter a week earlier and submitted it for the March 12 edition, which the Indy forgot to publish. Now with things spinning so fast it seems irresponsible to encourage people to be outdoors at all. I was on the Valido trail on Saturday and was at first heartened by the surge of people and families on the trail. People were unusually polite and courteous when they passed, and I made a point of pushing to the side as much as possible But with narrow trails, it was impossible to stay 6′ apart. Later on I saw an FB video from a South Laguna neighbor who was outraged over how careless people were being when so many were sheltering in place. And that was hard to argue with. It seems the careless actions and gatherings of too many in our public spaces warrant the closing of them all. But for many of us, nature is the med. What’s a biophiliac to do?