Nature: A Strong Medicine for Troubled Times
BY: BOB DELUCA, GROUP FOR THE EAST END PRESIDENT
Growing up in the Connecticut hills, most of my backyard was taken up by a slowly meandering brook that for centuries had cut its way through a wooded swamp that extended for hundreds of acres in all directions.
Beavers had opened up the tree canopy and made a home for themselves and their kin in the shallow pond they constructed with a number of small dams and spillways. By backing up the stream and raising the water level by just a few inches, they figured out how to construct little canals that reached well out into the woods and provided access to the tender shoots and saplings they needed to sustain themselves. The pond itself had become home for wide variety of wildlife ranging from wood ducks and barred owls, to painted turtles and pickerel frogs.
Pickerel frog
I would later learn that such riverside or "riparian" woodlands and beaver ponds were critical habitats for many species including vast numbers of migratory birds, but for most of my childhood those wet woods were simply the place I went to play, explore, climb trees, and catch frogs. More importantly, those woods were also the place where I could turn off the outside world, contemplate life, sit with my own sadness, see the connectedness of living things, and find some inner peace in troubled times.
Wood Duck - Ryan Schain, Macaulay Library photo
Today, there is no doubt every one of us is facing a time of frightening uncertainty. The anxiety and worry that comes along with a potentially lethal pandemic can be overwhelming and debilitating even for those with the best coping strategies.
As I have grappled with my own anxiety and concerns about the future, I keep finding myself drawn back to the natural world right here on the East End. And as I take some time to get outside and walk along a woodland trail, or watch the sunset from Orient Point, or see the courtship of two Great Horned Owls, I just feel a little bit better, a little more positive, a little more hopeful, and a little less consumed by the troubling news of the day.
Nearly 50 years ago, the founders of Group for the East End understood that the value of living at peace with nature was something worth fighting for.
Today, thanks to that vision and the work of people all across the region, we are blessed to live in a place that is still defined more by its beaches and bays than by its highways and shopping malls. And at times like this, I am so incredibly grateful for every inch of land that has been preserved, for every beach that I can walk, and for the starlight that still inspires me to look beyond myself for comfort and answers.
So, I am going to keep getting outside - how about you?