The Joy of Dirt

The Natural Connection

Children and other small creatures love dirt. You get them up in the morning, buff and polish them to be ready for school, and before you know it, they’re out the door and into the dirt. If they’re extremely creative, and hoping to help you have a really bad day, they’ll chase the nutritional breakfast you just served them with a side of dirt. Dirt pies, in particular, are especially good after whole-wheat toast.

For some reason, as we age, we forget the joy of dirt. Well meaning people (usually adults in white pants) caution us to watch our manners, stay clean, be respectable. We take on new grown-up hobbies such as World Wide Wrestling and the Home Shopping Show. Or we develop a passion for “virtual living”, preferring to chat with faceless nicknames across a computer terminal, rather than with friends across a supper table. We travel by surfing the Internet, instead of walking beaches barefoot.

We stop playing in dirt. We grow fond of silk plants instead of growing real ones. We grow wider, older, stiffer in the knees. We become unfamiliar with the simple pastimes of our youth that we did almost instinctively, without coaching or instruction. We can feel disconnected from the passions of life. We stop having fun.

These days, reconnecting with the forgotten pleasures of youth is called Therapy. People go to college to learn how to guide the creatively challenged among us in rediscovering painting, song and dance. Music Therapy, Dance Therapy, and Art Therapy have emerged as valuable healing modalities in our nation’s acute care and rehabilitation hospitals. It appears that people who are having fun and who are happy, who dance and sing, get sick less often and heal quicker than people who sit on the couch and mope.

Since the 1800’s Horticultural Therapists have helped the sick reconnect with the healing power of plants and earth. Modeled after the Healing Gardens of the Middle Ages that were found in cloisters and monasteries, sanctuary gardens are enjoying renewed popularity as a way to minister to the mind and spirit of the ill while their bodies are trying to heal. Garden respites with fountains and healing plants are increasingly found on hospital rooftops or replacing concrete courtyards in health centers across the nation.

Hospitals that have dedicated the resources and staff to incorporating the natural environment into the institutional setting have been pleasantly surprised at the results. Gardens appear to help hospitals financially as much as they help patients physically and spiritually.

A well-known study conducted at Texas A&M University in 1984 by Dr. Roger Ulrich demonstrated that patients recovering from gallbladder surgery with a view of nature from their hospital window had significantly shorter hospital stays, required less pain medication, and had less complaints than patients who had a view of a brick wall.

Other studies have shown decreases in blood pressure and muscular tension within four to six minutes after viewing a natural scene. Alzheimer’s patients experience fewer violent outbreaks when they live in environments that have garden spaces. At a time when our country is spending ever-increasing resources on health care, it is amazing to see what real financial benefits can be achieved by simply giving patients trees and flowers to look at!

Luckily, we don’t have to wait to be hospitalized to experience the healing potential of gardens. It’s a simple thing to put aside the remote control, and go find that old pair of blue jeans that are just begging for a walk in the woods. Say a little prayer of thanksgiving as you bury that favorite silk blue hydrangea. Say another little prayer as you plant a real one, and add to the beauty of the earth.

Take a big breath, flex those stiff knee bones, and pick up a handful of that good Georgia dirt. But I would suggest that you save those high calorie mud pies for another day. You don’t want to overdo this Therapy thing.

For more information on Horticultural Therapy and a reading list on Healing Gardens, please write to:

The Natural Connection, c/o Pauline Bellecci, MD, PO BOX 777, Waycross, GA 31501 or visit www.swampdocs.com