Happier, Healthier, and More Creative

An obituary in the newspaper read: Our mother was a classy lady; always dressed to the nines. She never left the house without makeup, jewelry and perfume.

I’m 99.9% sure that I will not be remembered that way. I like to wear sweats every day; take pride in the fact that I can do my hair in 5 minutes—just gel, no blow dryer or curling iron; no perfume, minimum jewelry. Heck, I can do all my morning stretches in the time most people spend doing their hair and makeup. This one lady at the gym spends an hour, I swear, doing her hair and makeup. Gooey stuff on her eye lashes, eye liner, thick makeup, not to mention all the steps she takes on her hair. "Are you getting beautiful to go to work or to have lunch with the Queen of England?" I asked her one day. "No. I'm retired. I'm just going home." I told DeRay if it took me that long to do my hair and makeup after I swim, I would never go swimming. I'm in and out of the dressing room in 20 minutes, including a shower. I waste make-up money in other ways, like pills for my joints that may or may not help.

So how will my obituary read?

How will I be remembered?

I think I want to be known as a “Person of Nature”. Out in nature is where I feel the most content. Especially this week, after I listened to a podcast where Doug Fabrizio interviewed Florence Williams, the author of The Nature Fix, an intrepid investigation into nature’s restorative benefits. Why does nature makes us happier, healthier and more creative? 

For centuries, poets and philosophers extolled the benefits of a walk in the woods: Beethoven drew inspiration from rocks and trees; Wordsworth composed while tromping over the heath; Nikola Tesla conceived the electric motor while visiting a park. Intrigued by our storied renewal in the natural world, Florence Williams sets out to uncover the science behind nature's positive effects on the brain.

From forest trails in Korea, to islands in Finland, to groves of eucalyptus in California, Williams investigates the science at the confluence of environment, mood, health, and creativity. Delving into completely new research, she uncovers the powers of the natural world to improve health, promote reflection and innovation, and ultimately strengthen our relationships. As our modern lives shift dramatically indoors, these ideas—and the answers they yield—are more urgent than ever.

Humans are born with an innate love for other moving things and if we don’t cultivate it at an early age, we can lose it. The biggest exodus of all time is not only moving from rural areas to the city but migrating from the out-of-doors to indoors. In one study, 79% of mothers said they went outside every day; 29% of children spend time outside every day. That’s in one generation.  We have pivoted further away from nature than any generation before us. We are afflicted with mass generational amnesia. How can we get nature back in our lives in order to be our best selves?

They did a study involving tens of thousands of people, asking about their moods. Most people were most unhappy when at work or were sick. The majority were happiest when outside. It didn’t matter who they were with or what they were doing, they were significantly happier when they were outside. Being out in nature takes away stress, makes us think more clearly. Why are we spending so much time indoors away from nature?

Another study, they had people walk for 15 minutes in the woods while another group walked 15 minutes in the city. The cortisone, a hormone produced by the adrenal cortex, levels, which measures stress, were significantly lower in the people who walked in the woods. So exercise is not the answer.

Nature heals. Nature can elevate our immune system for up to three weeks. We are a part of nature; always have been; always will be. In the United States, we are trained to think that nature is something we dominate, utilize, change.  Instead, nature changes our brains and our bodies. When we are in nature, we stop taking ourselves so seriously.

We are not always the best judges of what is best for ourselves. For example, we think going shopping will make us feel good, or watching television; while under-valuing how good nature will make us feel.

Other countries have taken this more seriously. In Japan they have forest bathing. You just hang out in the forest, strolling or sitting; opening up all five senses to the woods; paying attention to what you are smelling, what you are feeling—feeling the breeze on your face. Learning to be mindful.  Smells reach the brain quickly – changing mood, changing behavior; invigorating us, making us more calm, less stressed, more energy; boasting our moods.

They locked people in a hotel room. In one room they misted with essential oils from the Cyprus trees.  For the other group, they sprayed water.  The group that were misted with essential oil had much healthier profiles.  

We were evolved to walk, walk, walk; to sit around the campfire and talk.

Air pollution not only affects our lungs, the particles go through the nose directly into the brain. Air pollution in this country kills three times more people than traffic accidents.

The dominant perception is sight. They did a window studies.  After patients had gall bladder surgery, records showed that those who were placed by a window with beautiful views of lawns and flowers asked for less pain meditation and were released from the hospital sooner than those who had no window or the window only showed a brick wall. Even observing nature through a window is beneficial.

Doctors are beginning to prescribe nature as medicine.

Our Park Service is putting dollars and expertise into getting people into nature.

Our own David Strayer has known for a long time that there's a restorative power in nature. The University of Utah psychologist is an avid hiker, but his latest research quantifies the benefits of turning off your technology and getting outdoors. After 4 days in the wilderness with no cell phones, laptops or gadgets, people were 50% better at creative problem-solving.

Actually, after only three days in the wilds, something profound shifts in our brains, suddenly we are getting ideas we’ve never had before. Five hours a month in the woods, keeps people from getting depressed and helps them heal.

Perhaps if I emerge myself deeply within the healthy healing woods, I will never die; no obituary needed.

The Wake-Up Call

So I wake up in the middle of the night with a swollen lip and numbness.

Am I having a stroke?

DeRay checks the computer to learn the signs.
Call DeLoy, he'll know.

After fretting for an hour or two,

We finally decide it’s an allergic reaction to something.

It’s actually lasted all day and feels very strange.

During the night’s darkness,

I thought how quickly things can change.

Christmas wouldn’t matter.

Cleaning the house would have to wait.

I don’t need to worry about dinner for the Esplin siblings.

Or the program on Christmas day.

No Christmas Eve party with Carol and Melissa;

Or dinner with Brooke’s family on his birthday.

What will Eddy do without me?

Who will take him swimming and play games with him?

Floss his teeth, and re-brush his hair?

Put lotion on chapped hands?

Who will fix the meals, clean the house and do the laundry?

What if I’m an invalid and a burden?

I desperately want to stick around;

keep things as they were.

Go to the gym.

Do my exercises.

Print my journal.

Sometimes it’s cleansing to face the inevitable.

Sure makes every second, minute, hour, and day count.

Gratitude fills my heart for being able to do the things

I want and need to do and for everything I have.

Wake up, Jacob.

 For the first few years after we were married,

DeRay called me John Jacob McCormick Jr.

I don’t know why.

I had forgotten it until I wrote

“Wake up, Jacob.”

Honoring, Sustaining, and Obeying the Law

I think it is a State Law

That women have a 10 minute break

every four hours of work.

Everyplace I worked

gave us a 15 minute break every four hours.

So when we‘re at home,

why don’t we honor this law?

Even now, approaching 80 years old,

I get up around 6:45

(or 7:20)

Do  yoga stretches,

Ride my trike,

Fix breakfast, do dishes,

Make beds.

Sometimes vacuum, sometimes mop,

Sometimes do laundry.

Rush to the gym to swim.

Fix lunch.

Do dishes.

By now, it’s 2 PM and I wonder why I’m tired.

Where was my 15 minute break every four hours?

It’s the law.

Borrowed from Facebook.

I don't have MS,

but two-bits says my body still needs restoring.

Snippets from the Tapestry of Life

What I really love about Utah:

 New snow in the mountains

June 17

Ripening cherries in the valley

And Ed riding his trike.

Yesterday, no trike ride.

Eddy read the weather forecast.

Snow in the mountains; 
rainy and cold (45 degrees) in the valley.
Glacier National Park has 16" of snow since yesterday.
We were at Glacier
56 years ago in June
on our way home
from delivering a car to DeLoy
in Cardston
 when he was on a mission.

Amy left this morning to visit friends on the East coast for a month. 
“Three things, Amy:   
1) Keep safe;
2) Have fun; and
3) Keep in touch.
That’s all.”
She’ll probably do the first two;
and then the third one won’t matter so much.

“I told Dad you are more worried about the cats than you are me,”
I jest before she leaves.

“You don’t get stranded up a tree;
locked in a shed, or caught in a closet.
You can cut your own nails, brush your own hair,
get your own food and water,
and you look both ways before crossing the street,” she prompts.
She’s spent the past week training me how
to play with the cats,
cut their nails, brush them;
and reminding me of danger zones.

 As we play games four hours after she leaves, Ed chats:

“I miss Amy already, Mom.”

“I don’t know if I can manage without her for four weeks.

I’m not letting her leave town ever again.”

 “Did you have a good visit with Uncle DeLoy?" (Skype) he asks.

“We did.”

“That’s the best conversation I ever heard.”

 When I told Dr. S that we celebrated my husband’s 80^th birthday,
he said:  “You’re not as old as he is, are you?”

“I’m just a couple of years younger.”

“Oh, I thought you were just in your early seventies.”

EARLY SEVENTIES?
(And you know they say younger than they really think.)
I thought he would say,
at the very most, early sixties.
Until I look in the mirror and feel my aching bones.

 Speaking of Dr. S, when I went for my second to last paid-for visit,
he recommended I decompress and laser my lower back.
I’ve known for 40 years that I have degenerative arthritis.
When I told him how much my left leg hurt
just before DeRay’s Birthday Bash,
he thought maybe it was my lower back causing the pain
rather than my knees so he took x-rays.
Bear in mind, that nothing is covered by insurance
in chiropractic offices.
Twenty-five visits for $3,200, plus ten follow up visits.
“We’ll think about it.”
What has he done for my knees?
I still can’t walk without pain; can’t garden;
it hurts to go up and down stairs.
“You may have to have surgery,” he cajoles, “bone on bone.”
Why didn't someone tell me that $1,500 ago?
 “My brother-in-law says the body rejuvenates
with the proper supplements but it takes a while,” I tell him.
“There is no pill in the world that will cure your knees.”
Of course, he had some stuff
that he was sure was better than Ron’s
even though he doesn’t even know what Ron recommends.
I’m confused.

 My visiting teachers came Monday morning.

They had to come in through the garage

because DeRay had the sprinklers going full blast.

“I told Jean if you didn’t want us to come,

you should have just told us,” Annette laughed.

DeRay knew they were coming but he forgot.

That got us talking about old age and memory loss. 

As I was walking up to the bowery
at the Dutch oven dinner the other night,
Frank Leaver, our next door neighbor was rushing past.
He didn’t even glimpse at me.
Still I said, “What’s happening to your swimming pool?”
He hurriedly answered, “It’s all new.  Going to be fixed for good.”
But you could tell he didn’t have time for me.
He was rushing over to talk to the Taylors.
Later, I said to DeRay,
“Wouldn’t it be nice to be admired like the Taylors?"
I’m sure Frank and Blaine were bishops simultaneously
when we were in different wards; old cronies.
Annette has been Stake Relief Society President
so everyone seeks her out.

After laughing about the sprinklers,
Annette said that she is becoming
worried about her husband who is 82.
“The other night at the Dutch oven cookout,
Frank came up and asked if he ever loaned his trailer out.
Blaine told him no because someone broke it
when they borrowed it
but that he would be happy go with him
to do whatever he wanted to use it for.
When Frank left,
Blaine turned to me and asked:
'Who was that?'"

Things are not always as they seem.

Photos taken June 18, 2014

The False Illness

DeRay’s sister, Clare, was legitimately sick.

A harsh cough; congestion, misery.

When DeRay started to hack

After he and Ed spent a week with her,

I called it a False Cough.

It sounded like he was faking it to me.

Copycat.

Desiring to be like his beloved sister.

Nevertheless, the doctor treated him for pneumonia.

A week later, when I caught it,

I deemed it not so false.

Then Eddy caught the fake cough

and joined the chorus.

These false ailments are the very hardest to cure.

Irritating.  Exasperating.  Grating. Exhausting. Agonizing. Miserable.

For nearly a month now.

BOO

I called Sylvia

My 93-year-old friend

around 5 PM.

Someone picked up the phone

but I could hear nothing.

For the next four hours

each time I try to call

her line is busy.

Finally around 9 PM

I could stand it no longer

and coaxed DeRay to ride

down with me to check on her.

He’s worn out.

He took Aunt Olive to visit Uncle Grant’s

grave on his birthday.

Sylvia probably just left the phone off the hook

but I have to know.

“If her light is on,

we’ll know she’s OK,”

DeRay reasoned on the way down.

The light is on.  Good.

But we’re here, we may as well know for sure.

Ring.  Ring.  Ring.

Pound on the door.

Stillness.

I go next door.

I know who he is because I hear Sylvia talk

about him all the time.

He doesn’t know me from Eve.

He suggests I pound on the window.

I pound.

Stillness.

I pound on the door again.

I walk back to the car.

“The porch light came on,” DeRay observed,

“maybe its action activated.”

“If its action activated,

it would have come on the first time.”

I walk back, pound again

and the door opens.

“You scared me.”

“YOU SCARED ME,” I retaliate.

We turn her phone off,

thankful that’s all it was.

“Would you put drops in my eyes?”

She couldn’t even open the drops,

let alone put them in her eyes.

What was the doctor thinking?

She has been weak and sick

for over a month now;

hasn’t been able to go to church,

even while she is Gospel Doctrine class president,
who has the arduous responsibility
of assigning the prayers and telling the jokes.

I wish she weren’t alone in that big house.