state parks Archives - Owl Medicine: Shamanic Healing

Two Weeks From Now

Well, it sure seemed like today was a huge test for a lot of us here in the United States – even a bigger test than the special election in Wisconsin a few weeks ago. And I have to wonder what consequences we’ll be witnessing two weeks from now.

I was astonished when I drove to my office today (where I didn’t encounter a single person, by the way). But the traffic was shocking. Cabin fever, it would seem, has hit our country and hit it hard.

Not only was there a steady stream of traffic racing past my office for several hours today, but when Karl and I took a walk early this evening, our neighbors revealed what a hellacious day they’d had. Apparently people are losing their minds in the state and county parks.

Give a Little, Take a Lot

All of you who’ve been reading my posts know that I am an ardent advocate of people getting out into nature and taking walks, biking, whatever, as much as possible. In fact, when this pandemic was just in its infancy (as far as us realizing that social distancing was going to be our single best tool in keeping transmission rates down), I voiced upset over Pennsylvania’s initial choice to close the parks.

Well, I stand corrected. I had a lot more faith that people would use their damn heads if and when permitted to use our state and county parks. No. Such. Luck.

We have people parking in places that were never meant to be used as such. (Let us hope no one slips and falls at High Rocks, since there’s a huge risk that emergency vehicles wouldn’t even be able to get to the park, there are so many cars parked bumper to bumper on the sides of the roads leading to the park.)

And then there are the roving packs of people. There were groups of 10-12-14 people walking together today, laughing and having a great time together – as if they haven’t a care in the world. Not a face mask in sight.

They were given the opportunity to spread their legs and get out into nature – and they are taking too much. Those packs of people walking shoulder to shoulder up our country roads, blocking those roads with their cars, and not even seeming to care one whit about the people they’re ‘sharing’ trails with (or parking in – at their own homes), are reverting right back to the selfish ways that got us here in the first place.

We’ll See

Another example of this is reflected in the news reports that beaches in Florida and California are teeming with people desperate to ‘get back to normal’ and ‘soak in some rays.’

Well, for as much benefit as sunlight provides in killing the virus, I have a feeling, two weeks from now, we may see that sunshine wasn’t enough.

Case in point: just fifteen days following the election in Wisconsin on April 7^th, 19 people have tested positive for the coronavirus.

I guess we’ll see how things fare two weeks from now. The worst part of all of this is that it’s not just people taking risks with their own lives. That would be one thing. But it’s another thing entirely when people decide to risk giving the virus to others. More and more, we’re discovering that asymptomatic people can easily be unwittingly spreading the virus like wildfire.

If you haven’t been tested, how do you know you’re not the ticking time bomb that will explode someone else’s life?

Two weeks from now will be interesting. I hope it’s not terribly depressing.

(T-580)

High Rocks State Park (14 March 2020) – Photo: L. Weikel

Banging the Drum

If you’ve been reading this blog for any extended period of time, you’ve probably caught on to the fact that I love taking walks. I’ve written about how vitally important walking in nature is to my life, including the profound impact it’s had on my marriage. And now I’m banging the drum about walking even more as we all do our best to develop new coping strategies.

Gratitude

I’m feeling grateful for the weather this past week, as it was nice enough for us to walk every single day. This turned out to be exceedingly important to my mental health, as crises on the national and global stages, such as the spread of the Coronavirus, to personal issues looming large with clients and friends seemed to erupt every day.

The perspective and pleasure afforded by simply being in nature and physically moving forward reliably helped me sort out my thoughts and feelings about all sorts of matters – even things I didn’t realize were weighing on me.

Karl and I have remarked a number of times to each other already how lucky it is that this pandemic didn’t land on us in November. With the closing of all the schools and the admonition to engage in social distancing, it just seems like having to endure all of that while being cooped up in our homes would have been even far more difficult. (And believe me, I’m not thinking or saying any of this is going to be easy.)

What in the World?

So you can imagine my utter distress when I encountered this sign yesterday at High Rocks State Park. I’d also received notification via text message that Lake Nockamixon State Park was closing as well. You can check out exactly what this closure means here, and also see which parks are affected. You can also use it to keep an eye on whether they will extend the closures beyond the next two weeks or include other parks as the situation unfolds.

While I can understand closing the administration buildings and rest rooms at these parks, I am puzzled over why they are closing the parking lots. Reading the link above, it does sound as though the trails themselves remain accessible, so hopefully they’ll go easy on enforcing the parking.

It simply doesn’t make sense to me that we would be restricting residents’ ability to get outside in the fresh air and walk, hike, bike, explore nature, go birding, learn about plants, and maybe even brush up on some survival skills, especially when the schools across the state are all closed for at least two weeks!

It Does a Body Good

Here’s an interesting article I came across today. While it’s not technically about walking or being out in nature in a recreational capacity (which seems to me would be even more beneficial), it does discuss some fascinating research and conclusions from studying the 1918 Spanish flu.

And if you’re questioning why the entire country seems to be implementing more and more draconian measures to help stem the spread of this virus, such as closing restaurants, bars, schools, and pretty much everything except food stores and pharmacies, here’s an article that explains the reasoning.

All in all, it will be much better for all of us (but especially our hospitals, which may soon get walloped by unprecedented numbers of people showing up all at once) if we can stem the exponential growth now. Every single day we wait to implement these measures increases the risks for all of us. So I guess the best thing we can hope for is to look back on the very weird times we’re going to endure and say, “It didn’t get as bad as it could have.”

Because that will mean these drastic measures worked.

Stay calm, stay centered, find something to be grateful for every day, and if you can – get outside and listen to those peepers!