Monday walks

On Mondays, Good Shepherd parishioners walk around West Lafayette and Purdue's campus. I have had the pleasure of walking with them on a few occasions, and I tend to join on the absolute worst days. One day it started raining. Another day it was terribly hot & muggy: the kind of day you swim through the air or cut it to clear a walking path. I took pictures of highlights on the walk, mostly imitations of the pamphlet pictures Purdue uses to advertise itself as a welcoming, green campus in contrast to its image, or my image, of it as a campus amid cornfields. And for quite some time, there were literal cornfields close by academic campus. 

I found myself also taking pictures of interesting green spaces, and chasing squirrels (Purdue's squirrels are quite famous or ... infamous). But it's the trees that caught my attention, and I cannot help but think about the naked leafless trees that bring me down in winter. But now, in late spring-become-summer, the trees are full of leaves and birds … and sqiurrels. When I walk, I tend to walk in woods or along the shore, and both tend to be forested in the Midwest. Those trees breathe out copious oxygen and wave happy limbs in the breeze. The trees and woods make me happy. Throw in a water feature and I'm a happy human. The woods have literally been found to be rejuvenating for humans. Shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, improves physical health and mental well being. Gardening is also good for health because of beneficial microbes in the soil.

 

As I walk around campus, I feel renewed. Moreso in spring, summer, and fall when the trees are in full glorious bloom, I enjoy the trees. My family survived the pandemic in part by retreating to the Arboretum on the southwestern edge of campus and the Yew Cathedral, eating lunch outdoors and just getting out of the house. It seems like another lifetime and I try to recall what I was thinking about Good Shepherd.