Bluebirds of Hope
“One of the things the doctors don’t tell you about finishing active treatment for cancer is the uphill emotional battle that can lie ahead…sudden feelings of vulnerability surfaced... Within weeks of finishing treatment, I found myself in a new and unfamiliar point…
The spring after I finished chemotherapy, still recovering from multiple reconstruction surgeries, I signed up to be a bluebird nest box monitor at my local state park. This provided me a sense of purpose, much needed exercise, and caring for something more vulnerable than myself. Weekly nest box checks, cleaning of boxes, counting of eggs, measuring successes and failures….was exactly what I needed to walk back into my own new normal. These birds gifted me with a heaping measure of resilience…companions for me as I embarked on my own new beginnings.”
Invitation: “…companions for me …”
Bluebirds of Hope by Holly Merker in her substack - The Birding Prescription
Holly Merker is a nature-based wellness specialist, professional birding guide, award-winning author, podcaster and lecturer providing nature-based wellness, Mindful Birding and Forest Therapy programming for people of all ages. You can find more about her book Orintherapy: For your Mind, Body, and Soul by Holly Merker, Richard Crossley, and Sophie Crossley
We will meet for the Community Table Monday, March 24th at 8:00 PM ET. Contact us for information HERE.
We will continue our daily Shared Solitude: Embracing the gift of silence in community offered by our Courageous friend Emily - Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6:30 am ET and Tuesday, Thursday at 3:00 pm ET through April 18th. See details on our Calendar HERE
Learn More About Circles of Courageous Commons HERE
Lifting up the gratitude I feel for tonight's recent Community Table session! Thank you for hosting and holding space to absorb and reflect on Holly Merker's Bluebirds of Hope.
The vulnerability that Holly Merker writes about in terms of her journey as a cancer survivor is familiar to me as I am a cancer survivor as well. I love that she started caring for these bluebirds at the park "These birds gifted me with a heaping measure of resilience…companions for me as I embarked on my own new beginnings.” Nature has so much to teach us in addition to being a place for healing and wholeness.