“I go to Nature to be soothed and healed.” — John Burroughs

I suffer from a condition I like to call “Nature Attention Disorder.” There are times when I am having a lovely conversation with a friend and, in the middle of my (surely brilliant) thoughts, I become distracted. I may stop talking, then I will probably excitedly point and enthusiastically tell you all about the bird or amphibian or new bloom that I have seen.

My Mom is convinced that one day I will run my car off the road while bird watching (although I’m an excellent driver and careful too).

Today, I walked outside to go up to the office and heard an owl hoot. I could not stop myself. I followed the call. I thought I went in the direction of the barred owl’s voice but I never heard it again. It didn’t matter. Instead, I followed my senses down the path. My nose told me the skunk cabbage had emerged. My eyes loved the bright pink salmonberry blooms. I heard the squeaks of the Douglas squirrel before she came down the fir to greet me. I felt vibrations of life through the soles of my shoes. My whole body breathed in the air, fresh from earlier rain and heavy with cedar and duff.

When I returned to the office maybe 15 minutes later, I felt rejuvenated. My head felt clear. My feet were still tingling. And I was ready to work in front of my screen for another few hours.

“It is a scientific fact that the occasional contemplation of natural scenes of an impressive character … is favorable to the health and vigor of men and especially to the health and vigor of their intellect beyond any other conditions which can be offered them; that it not only gives pleasure for the time being, but increases the subsequent capacity for happiness and the means of securing happiness.”

Frederick Law Olmstead, architect of Central Park and conservationist, may have exaggerated a bit when he made this “scientific” assertion in his 1865 defense of Yosemite, entitled “The Yosemite and the Mariposa Big Tree Grove,” but does it matter?

I wanted proof. I Googled and researched and scoured the Internet for scientific proof that nature is indeed scientifically proven to benefit people. Then I stopped and thought, “What am I doing?” I am spending all this time in front of a screen, looking to prove something that I already know to be true.

I know that when I take time to be outside, whether it be a walk in the woods or my morning farm chores or a low-tide stroll, I feel invigorated, restored, happy. As a wander in nature, things happen to me: shoulders relax, I breathe deeply, and my creative brain switches on and the synapses start connecting at bullet train speeds. I have ideas. I write poems. I problem solve. I KNOW that time in Nature is good for my body, my heart, my brain and soul.

Go ahead, try it. Inhale some forest air. Discover your soul in the woods. You will be thanked.

— Kari Pelaez is program assistant at Stillwaters Environmental Center: kari@stillwaters environmentalcenter.org.