Showing posts with label restorative experiences. Show all posts
Showing posts with label restorative experiences. Show all posts

05 November 2012

Combing Olive Trees Branch by Branch


Fall brings  a favorite opportunity in our olive rich area - harvesting olives the old fashioned way by combing branch after branch of our friend's olive trees. She has few enough trees to do it this way rather than the more mechanized version used by larger places. What a wonderful way to spend a day with friends.




My friend Sheila's trees were laden this year, ready to be swept into the nets below. Yesterday was in the high 60's with intermittent sun, the three dogs were bounding around begging someone to throw a stick for them to fetch and six of us were eager to engage in the ancient, almost meditative practice of harvesting olives.




A view from the olive grove located about 40 minutes from my house and closer to the mountains.



Sheila prepared a delicious, home cooked feast for the workers. We ate, chatted and shared snippets of our lives in Italy, rich with new-for-us experiences that endear us to this land, this place.



After pressing, each couple's reward is five liters of olive oil. I'm sure it enhances the heart benefits of olive oil to have combed the trees branch by branch and harvested the olives with our own hands.



Sheila has a couple of trees with eating olives rather than those meant to be crushed for oil. The green olives from Abruzzo, our area of Italy, are scrumptious and rated highly nationally.



Olive oil is used in products as well. Soap, of course, but also shampoo, body wash and lotion. My skin and hair love them.



It's hard to overestimate the value of slow, simple, earth based activities further connecting me to all that is- the trees, the sun, the earth, fresh air, fresh food, friends, easy banter, play with a dog, being a part of the cycle of that which feeds me. I'm grateful.

23 April 2012

Healing Landscapes

"Tribal people have known this for millennia, sensitive as they are to the healing properties of landscapes- those that teach us our limits. Contemplating the sacred balance of wild terrain of the seas is recognized as therapeutic, restoring the inner geography of the soul."
(The Solace of Fierce Landscape: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality by Belden Lane)



I caught the best part of the day yesterday at the local beach, Half Moon Bay. It's secluded and gorgeous. The water is warm enough to just walk right in, bob around and talk with my friend, Annee, to my heart's content. It was a restorative way to relax after my first full week of work.






Crossroads also recognizes the healing terrain of the sea as therapeutic. This is the view of the bay today  from one of the porches. Just walking onto the campus is soothing.



The sea has always been a healing landscape for me. What about for you?