It’s Easy Being Green

Posted

Allison Grisham
Bell Tower Reflection for 4/24/20

It’s Easy Being Green

By Allison Grisham

Kermit the Frog was wrong. It IS easy being green. We just have to understand what it means to be “green.” I’m not talking about recycling or solar energy, although we would be better off with more of those. I’m talking about being IN the color green.

Before COVID-19, doctors in the US were beginning to prescribe “Forest Bathing” for their patients. Forest Bathing is like taking a guided meditation through a nature space. It focuses the mind on the present through the five senses as a way of connecting deeply to nature. Practitioners show decreases in blood pressure and stress hormones. Forest Bathing sounds like something we could all use right now.

If you can, please get out into God’s creation this week. Find a socially isolated space. Listen to the birds singing; smell the oils from the trees; touch the earth beneath your feet, sand, dirt, rock, grass, or water. Stay there and be fully present and fully alive in that moment of grace.

All of us may not be able to get out to Rattlesnake Canyon or hike Cold Spring Trail, and those of us who can, may find the trailheads are too crowded for social distancing. In those cases, I have another idea.

I wonder if we could get the same relaxation benefits of Forest Bathing in our backyard or from a large houseplant. What if we were to lie down under a tree or bush in our backyard or to put our head under a houseplant, noticing it and our breath for ten minutes. How would we feel afterwards if we spent those ten minutes in awareness of the green that God has made?

Some of us in our congregation are housebound. For others, sticking your head under a bush is not an option. However, we have windows. From our windows, we can see beauty in God’s creation anywhere we look. Etty Hillesum had such a window.

Etty was a young Jewish woman in Nazi transit camp prior to being sent to her death in Auschwitz. While looking out her window, she wrote this entry to God: “The jasmine behind my house has been completely ruined by the rains and storms of the last few days, its white blossoms are gloating about in muddy black pools on the low garage roof. But somewhere inside me the jasmine continues to blossom undisturbed, just as profusely and delicately as it ever did. You can see, I look after You, I bring You not only my tears and my forebodings on the stormy, grey Sunday morning, but I even bring you scented jasmine. And I shall bring You all the flowers I shall meet on my way, and truly there are many of those. I shall try to make you at home always. Even if I should be locked up in a narrow cell and a cloud should drift past my small barred window, then I shall bring You that cloud, oh God, where is still the strength in me to do so. I cannot promise You anything for tomorrow but my intensions are good. You can see.”

When we are in the color green, we are calmer and less reactive and more responsive to God. Like Etty, our hearts and minds are filled with thanksgivings, and we can make an offering of our worries to God and feel them melt away. I hope that your week may be filled with God’s green.