I was in first grade when I fell in love with the outdoors. I vividly remember wandering down trails of the McDonald-Dunn Forest outside my hometown wet and cold with all my first grade classmates. Naturally it was raining– it is Oregon after all. But I remember the glistening ferns and the loamy smell of rotting leaves and the drip, drip, drip of the rain off of the firs. I was hooked.
We camped, fished, hiked and played outside my entire life. That is the blessing of growing up in the Pacific Northwest. My favorite memories of childhood are of the outdoors, even if it was just walking the dog up the road.
Adolescence and early adulthood were not kind to me. I felt like a square peg trying desperately to fit into a round hole in hundreds of ways. I will never forget the day that my mother (a PhD in clinical counseling) said to me, “Honey, you have Generalized Anxiety Disorder.” Then in 2006 I developed a migraine. That never went away. Here we are 12 years later and that same little man with a hammer is banging away in the corner of my brain.
The only place that I ever feel truly at peace is when I am outside in nature, exploring, breathing, forgetting.
#dirttherapy keeps me balanced and sane. I have learned so many ways to cope and have developed mental wellness skills. I manage my medical disorder much better than I did a decade ago. But you will always find me at least one time a week puttering around the McDonald-Dunn Forest, dog and coffee in tow. Because the love affair with nature that started so young is part of what keeps me going. There are even days that I think my soul might be partially made up of trees and mountains. Its magical stuff. I hope that through this website our journey to wellness and our daily struggles can help others to find balance as well.
Also… Misty Dawn is easily the funnier one in our friendship so you’ll probably find her posts far more guffaw-inducing. I’ve come to accept this as the natural order of things and will instead attempt to impress you with Scrabble triple-score worthy words.
Photo: Forest Discovery Trail Connector Loop, McDonald Forest – Oregon State University Research Forest, Oregon
Dirt Therapy 