Did you notice last night on the Channel BBC 2 Chelsea Flower Show programme that there was a lady who had won a Silver Award for the Help for Heroes Urban Garden? I would encourage you to go and visit the link. I was so happy to hear her use the word Ecotherapy in her interview on TV. Yes!, plants, gardens/sanctuaries can and do have the ability to make you feel calmer, safer and to lose yourself in just looking at the beauty; no bad memories or thoughts, just a little moment of peace.
Often I feel like a lone voice trying to communicate the undeniable power of nature to cure our minds. I felt so vindicated by her and her efforts and very pleased to see she (and her team of course) got recognition. Apart from everything, it is a lovely garden and I hope it gets transferred, in tact, to a place where it will be used for the purpose it was intended.
My own depression is bad today, but I see blue sky coming my way and with any hope I'll be down at my plots this evening for a bit of therapy myself. x
UPDATE
I'm lying in a ball on the sofa, outside is like Armageddon; the rain and thunder is so loud. The Lottie will be flooded there is so much rain. I like thunder usually, it's power seems otherworldly, it makes me think about Zeus being angry or something. But today it is accentuating my depression, how weird is that, for the last hour or so I haven't been able to think, curled up with my blanket, just staring at the fireplace or closing my eyes because the double vision is so bad. Now with this storm raging overhead, I feel even more pathetic, so small and insignificant. We have all this understanding about our world and we have this technology where effectively I am talking to any one of the billions out there, how come I feel so desperately alone? I am alone, in a world full of people, I am alone and I don't really matter in the grand scheme of things and I'm certainly no hero. It's amazing what a storm can do for your self-esteem....
I think the worst of it may be over now, but there will be no Lottie relief today I don't think, if it was flooded yesterday, I hate to think what my pieces of Eden look like now.
People experience some kind of therapic treatment with gardening. Looking at plants and flowers, doing chores and anything at all by drowning ourselves with the pleasure behind gardening. For me, watering and weeding though simple and mundane, give me excessive satisfaction and pleasure.. Hmmm..
ReplyDeleteHave fun carrie.....
~ bangchik.
Embrace the blue sky, and photograph it ;)
ReplyDeleteYou are so right Bangchik, weeding and tidying up the garden is my favourite part. You just get involved in those simple jobs and everything else just slips away...x
ReplyDeleteJo, I fear I have photographer's block!! I still see good photos around me in passing but the drive is gone.
Hugs from Joanne. Hope it soon passes your depression and the weather and that you are soon enjoying things again
ReplyDeleteThe idea of other people, or even their actual presence if they're not talking to you, can make you feel more acutely alone than just being really alone would. It's like thinking about food when you're hungry, making you more hungry.
ReplyDeleteI hope you're feeling a bit better by the time you read this.
Carrie - re photographers block - there is an interesting article about it here : http://shuttersisters.com/home/2009/5/21/hitting-the-wall.html xxx
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