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 […]
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 Finnish 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 […]
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 […]