Befriending Nature and Each Other: We are in it together
By Amanda Newell
As we celebrate Earth Day this year, the impact of climate change is increasingly visible
across the planet—an increase in heat waves, wildfires, and sea levels. ¹ Creation’s cry for a more
comprehensive and compassionate response from all its inhabitants grows louder every day.
Spending time in nature, such as in a nearby forest, green space, or lake, can foster higher levels
of concern and care for creation. ² As May C Brown, Director of the Friendship Center’s
Seedtime and Harvest Greenhouse and Garden program puts it, “All of creation is a part of us;
we are in it together.”
At the Friendship Center, we seek to honor nature for its own value, not for what it can
do for us. Gardeners tend land that Indigenous Peoples stewarded for centuries before us. The
Friendship Center garden and grounds, located at Holy Comforter Episcopal Church, are a
certified wildlife sanctuary. All gardening is organic and pesticide-free. The gardeners start their
morning by listening to the birds and watching where they nest so as not to disturb them during
the day’s activities. May C Brown indicates that even the occasional snake is part of the
community and helps us by eating critters that would otherwise eat our plants.
Over the years, May C Brown has witnessed gardeners “open up to welcoming all of the
life they see” in nature. She recalls a gardener sitting on the bench in the memorial garden and
watching mockingbirds eat purple berries off the mahonia. Mahonia shrubs, which have fragrant
yellow blossoms, are often considered invasive, but at the Friendship Center even they belong.
The garden is also full of plants that attract not only bees, but also other pollinators like
butterflies and hummingbirds; and both bees and humans enjoy the many herb flowers the
gardeners plant. Gardeners often form special bonds with specific plants. One gardener has
adopted the strawberry bed and tends it with great care. Another gardener wants to protect the
beets. When all but one beet plant was lost, she made it her mission to seed new ones.
Research confirms that spending time in nature can reduce depression and anxiety and
have a positive effect on mood disorders. ³ At the Friendship Center, we have found, as author
Stephen Chase writes, that nature is a source of “healing, solace, and guidance.” ⁴ As part of the
Friendship Center’s Wellness and Recovery program, participants have hiked near Jasper,
Georgia. “It’s always fun to walk through the trails trying to identify plants, notice water streams,
and search for wildlife,” says the Friendship Center’s Executive Director Tameka Baker.
For some participants, a Friendship Center field trip offers their first opportunity to
encounter natural expanses. Tameka Baker shares, “On one outing, after the hike we drove to a
picnic area by Lake Allatoona; a participant was wide-eyed and exclaimed that he’d never seen a
lake before.” Liz Mitchell, who previously worked as the Wellness and Recovery Coordinator for
the Friendship Center, recounts taking several participants to the beach while attending the
Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network conference on St. Simon Island, Georgia. While
there, one participant put his feet in the ocean for the first time. Later, as they sat on the fishing
pier looking out at the sun setting over the water, he remarked how perfect it was. Lack of access
to nature is a reality that people of color are more likely to experience than white people. ⁵ A
report from the Hispanic Access Foundation and the Center for American Progress indicates
“that communities of color are almost three times more likely than white communities to live in
‘nature-deprived’ areas.” ⁶ Over half of the Friendship Center community is African American.
In the spring and fall every year, the Friendship Center’s Art Director Charlotte Cameron
drives participants to Folk School at Camp Mikell in the North Georgia mountains. The trip
offers not only the opportunity for artists to practice their crafts, but also access to mountains and
valleys as well as creeks and waterfalls. ⁷ Closer to home, Liz Mitchell and Edi Guyton have held
a group session for the Whole Health Action Management group at Constitution Lakes. One of
the group members set a goal to walk more. To support her and to give the class the chance to
experience natural beauty, the co-leaders guided participants in a hike on Doll’s Head Trail.
One practice encouraged during Friendship Center outings is that of paying attention with
all our senses, which research shows increases perceptions of well-being. ⁸ Encounters that foster
human-nature connections can also impact the planet’s health. ⁹ According to Amos Clifford,
founder of the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs, human efforts to
sustain the environment will be more effective when grounded in “authentic relationship” and
“partnership” with the “more-than-human world.” ¹⁰
At any given time, there are more people outside at the Friendship Center than inside it.
An awning provides shade for our picnic tables where food is shared, and laughter exchanged.
Moment by moment we are building our relationships with each other and with the natural world
around us. Acting to sustain our ecological home also occurs one moment at a time. And now is
always a good time to start taking ecofriendly actions. According to Joanna Macy, “Yahweh’s
words through Moses now bear a literal truth: ‘I have set before you life and death; therefore,
choose life.’” ¹¹ Macy asserts, “we can choose life…even as we face global climate
disruption…We can still act for the sake of a livable world.” ¹²
Resources:
For more information on ways to protect the environment, visit the earthday.org website at
https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2023/
Check out Camp Mikell’s beautiful setting and retreat offerings at https://campmikell.com/
Sources:
1 NASA Global Climate Change/Vital Signs of the Planet, “The Effects of Climate Change,” Accessed on April 20, 2023, https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/.
2 Amos Clifford, Your guide to Forest Bathing: Experience the Healing Power of Nature (Newbury Port, MA: Conari Press, 2018). See also Sallie McFague, Super, Natural Christians: How we should love nature (Minneapolis, MN: Ausburg Fortress, 1997).
3 Marita Stier-Jarmer, Veronika Throner, Michaela Kirschneck, Gisela Immich, et al. “The Psychological and Physical Effects of Forests on Human Health: A Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses,” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 4 (February 2021): 1770, doi: 10.3390/ijerph18041770.
4 Stephen Chase, Nature as Spiritual Practice (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2011), 6, 16.
5 Alejandra Borunda, “How ‘nature deprived’ neighborhoods impact the health of people of color” National Geographic (July 29, 2020) citing a report by The Hispanic Access Foundation and the Center for American Progress.
6 Alejandra Borunda, “How ‘nature deprived’ neighborhoods impact the health of people of color” National Geographic (July 29, 2020) citing a report by The Hispanic Access Foundation and the Center for American Progress.
7 Camp Mikell, “Welcome to Camp Mikell,” Accessed on April 20, 2022, https://campmikell.com/.
8 Avril Maddrell, “’It Was Magical’: Intersections of Pilgrimage, Nature, Gender and Enchantment as a Potential Bridge to Environmental Action in the Anthropocene,” Religions 13, no. 319 (April 2022). See also Carol Ryff, “Spirituality and Well-Being: Theory, Science, and the Nature Connection,” Religions 12, no. 914 (October 2021).
9 Amos Clifford, Your guide to Forest Bathing: Experience the Healing Power of Nature, 39.
10 Amos Clifford, Your guide to Forest Bathing: Experience the Healing Power of Nature, 39.
11 Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown, Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work that Reconnects (Gabriola Island, B.C.: New Society Publishers, 2014), 3.
12 Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown, Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work that Reconnects (Gabriola Island, B.C.: New Society Publishers, 2014), 3.