The Power of Green #2

Green has saved me in lockdown, I have visited Birchfield's Park almost everyday it is where I can breathe, be amongst the trees, hear birdsong, feel the air… Sometimes the noise of speeding cars and gangs of people who shouldn’t be gathered bring me down again, but not for long. The good thing about repeatedly visiting the same bit of green is noticing that it always changes, or that there is always something I have not noticed before. The weather is like changing the lighting on a stage, it shifts how the park feels, who is there, the sensory aspects of it. One really interesting thing has been the flash backs, walking through the grass suddenly takes me back to my childhood garden, or a school playing field. When the weather is stormy, humid, raining or just after rain, I travel back to Australia, India, America. I wonder if prisoners have these flash backs too, when they are confined to the same place all the time does a sudden change in the air take them somewhere else? I never knew how much affection you could have for a place. It is different when I go with my son, with him I get to explore it, to climb trees and go through undergrowth. Adults stick to paths, have a rhythm, feel silly up a tree alone. My son gives me a new version of the park. I strongly feel that as humans we should be in nature, after all if our brains are still wired to fight or flight in preparation for the next bear attack, then surely we are still programmed to be in the natural environment we were born into. The Alternative; buildings, screens, sedentary living, feels counter to our instincts, to what actually makes us feel better. The power of Green makes me think about the natural world as something to be used more (in the right way!) in workshops, parenting and my own well being.

All images by Naomi Kendrick