On my way to Koyasan, I started to read the book ‘Nature Mystics: The Literary Gateway To Modern Paganism’ by Rebecca Beattie, because she is interested ‘in the writer’s relationship to their landscape, and the […]
Listen to the stories of the Trees
Author: Ms Woods
Changing the Stories We Live By #4: Grief
Last month, I wrote how forest therapy in Japan is almost becoming an ecofeminist act. Last Saturday, I donated two workshops to the students of the HeForSheClub, the feminist student club of Nagoya University and members of […]
Winter solstice and Christmas in Japan
In Japan, Christmas is no holiday. I have now a small break from work to write this; but later I return to work. Christmas Eve is apparently a day for dating (because the Christmas illumination […]
Tea tasting: Kumazasa-cha
Originally posted on 茶柱 The Floating Tea Stem:
I was told that Kumazasa (Sasa veitchii) is a specialty of Hokkaido, where it is naturally grown. The kanji characters 熊笹 literally mean ‘bear’s bamboo leaves’ and no…
Lucia – the night of light … and trolls?
A Finish friend, with ties in Belgium, and with who I learn a lot about forest and nature based health practices in the last month, shared this video with me, and I like to share this video with you. In Norway, Sweden and Swedish-speaking regions of Finland, as songs are sung, girls dressed as Saint Lucy carry cookies and saffron buns in procession, which symbolizes bringing the Light of Christ into the world’s darkness.
What the person who made the video, wrote:
Lucia is a tradition in Sweden where we bring light to the darkness. Since many years back I have always gone out in the middle of the Lucia night to light up hundreds of candles in the forest, with the intention to spread light into the world. Maybe you have seen my earlier lucia-films here on my YouTube. But this year was special. Just as the other lucia-nights I prepared to get out and light up my candles. But this night, the forest surprised me 🙂
The Snow White Effect: when forest therapy becomes an ecofeminist act
For some reason, I start to connect forest bathing experiences with fairytales. Last month, for instance, I got a Russian fairytale experience during a forest bath in Norway . Since a week I am back […]
A kiss in the shadow of a linden tree
I said goodbye to Belgium, and for the first time I do not know when I return. This blog is a sort of goodbye to the linden trees and the forests in Flanders, and a […]
Fear and Floating in a Flemish Forest
To be a guide is more than a job. It is a calling. And with callings for other ways, these seeds of wisdom I am collecting offers a path for continuously learning and growing into […]
Trolls in a magical forest in Belgium
A few months ago, I read you can find trolls in a magical forest in Belgium. Of course I looked up and read that Thomas Dambo, a Danish artist, made rolls with old palettes, recycled wood, […]
When a Nordic forest bath becomes a fairytale
Last weekend I accompanied my Russian friend on her first forest bath. I had found another guide with ANFT that guides in Ekebergparken in Oslo. Two weeks earlier, I had asked the guide before what […]
