Forest Bathing vs Vanity

"I would fund the building of a new hospital before funding the vanity of a Prior" said the Prioress to the Prior when he approached her for help in funding a priory palace.

This is within Ken Follett's "World Without End" novel set at the time of Edward III at the start of the 100 Years War with France. Its a popular TV series at present.

I may upset a few people who read this, but I feel with just cause.

Does art care?

When I go to Sligo I find myself and see the multi million euro arts centre next to a struggling hospital.  Go into the hospital and you will quickly identify that it is understaffed and the place looks a mess, seriously needing paintwork, building maintenance and more useful equipment.

Then go into the arts centre close to there and see a pristine building, but hardly anyone there except some staff looking around for something to do. I find the exhibitions are often macabre and feel its not what people are looking to see and be inspired by.

On one side my reaction is odd as I am passionate about the arts. I believe the arts are so essential for our vision, beliefs, faiths, courage, expression and to keep alive that light of insight within all of us shining bright.

I feel it is so important for us all to be a responsive audience to the arts too..

After that quote by the Prioress, it then came to me,
Perhaps this is the main  point of Bards In The Woods.
All that's in the arts can be set up and shared in the woods quite easily, plus
the woodlands are healers of many things that people are in hospital for
and go to the hospital for healing.

Vanity of Arts and Crafts?

The arts centre I refer to is full of artists' vanity.
It is full of the city's vanity, something they like to show off
- not out of pride but its potential to bring money into the city
and secure the salaries of those who administer the city.

Newgrange is another place that disturbs me.
To me its an artist impression re-construction
all in the cause of vanity, certainly not spirituality.

Big churches and cathedrals, I feel are the same,
calling upon the people to fund their vanity
yet, I am quite two faced with that
as I appreciate the churches as being an incredible canvas
for artists and craftspeople with all those carvings, sculptures, murals,
and in some cases, labyrinths.

Forest Bathing, the Shinrin Yoku, the Boladh na Sióga
embraces all who enter the woods to share their words, 
their music, their arts and their food at the picnic table.

Bards In The Woods is a place to express and to listen
but not with a one direction vanity as as a co-operative of shared expression.

Co-operative is the right word, more than union, I believe
as it is a co-operations of each other's space in expression and listening
and that becomes an alchemy of sharing, which by itself is good medicine.

Add to that all of the Forest Bathing, the Green Prescription that many people are re-discovering again to enhance and sustain their health and be good medicine for the health challenges many people already have.

Being in the woods and sharing as Bards is not the whole need though.

The woods do need caring and support.
Foresters are present in most of them as they are well on their way towards sustainable profit but planting and care of new woodlands to expand the woodlands of Ireland also demands volunteer help too.

Bards In The Woods is truly for the Arts as a way of sharing, stimulation of senses, protection, restoration, medicine and healing and not for vanity
that eventually separates us from our forever donating audience.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Adventure in the ancient St. John's Wood

Image
This is a forest I have been eager to visit for a long time. It is known as being here on the banks of Lough Ree in Co. Roscommon for over 7000 years, making it one of the most ancient post ice-age forests in Ireland. I was hoping to get a peek at some Irish Pines, a scarce tree, and some Elms that had not been affected by the Dutch Elm disease that spread through the 70s and 80s. Unfortunately, I saw neither but what we did find was fascinating. So lets go walking  ... As with many of these Sunday walks, this year, it had been a misty drizzling morning but the afternoon broke into warm summery sunshine. There was a breeze and this kept potential midges away. Sadly, only 5 of us together on this walk and only two of us residents of Co. Roscommon, others being from counties Sligo and Leitrim. Indeed I received the usual run of messages about weather concerns and did not think we were doing the walk today. As usual we did the walk and love it :-) I was expecting a network of
Read more

Old Head - Where Forest Meets Sea

Image
I have postponed coming to Old Head, Co. Mayo, as a Bards In The Woods destination for a couple of years. With an outstanding warm and sunny weather forecast for September I decided this was the place to go at last. Only one person shared this with me. Pity really, as I discovered this is a special place. However, despite outstanding weather forecast and sunny blue sky when I left Carrowcrory, once past Westport I did drive into mist and haze. The photos may cause here to look duller than it was. It was actually warm, dry and pleasant. I did visit again a couple of days later, tide was almost fully out, and this is what it was like. Even the lifeboat was grounded Tide was still out enough, while we were there, to walk around this little peninsula head which had an interesting tree growing from it Then over more beach. You can see the path into the woods beyond the lifebuoy post Here is this headland when the tide is out ... This is a '
Read more

Shinrin Yoku, Forest Bathing, in Ireland.

Image
A Walk In The Woods, followed by a Picnic, I find is the most fun way to spend a Saturday or Sunday, or both. Add to that, several research reports published since 1980 have revealed health benefits beyond what anyone would expect. Reports after reports reveal testimonials speaking about reduced blood pressure, reduced heart rate, reduced stress, reduced anxiety, reduced depression, reduced anger, and blessed clarity that releases emotional confusion ... all from being in the woods awhile Writers express joy of inspiration after writer's block. Inventors become excited by visioning solutions to problems they have been working with. People with very serious ailments have reported hallelujah relief and reductions of symptoms. Even myself, a stroke victim with severe paralysis discovered that after repeated time in the forests all of my physical and mental functions returned. The Japanese have set up a weekend walking in the woods tradition as Shinrin Yoku, the Korea
Read more