"Trees Affect Our Minds"

"Most of the forest's molecules bypass my sense of smell and dissolve directly into my blood, entering my body and mind below the level of consciousness. The effects of our chemical interpenetrations with plant aromas are largely unstudied. Western science hasn't stooped to take seriously the possibility that the forest, or the lack of it, might be part of our being. Yet forest lovers know very well that trees affect our minds. The Japanese have named this knowledge and turned it into a practice, shinrin-yoku, or bathing in forest air. It seems that participation in the [forest's] community of information may bring us a measure of well-being at the wet chemical core of ourselves." David George Haskell. The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature. (NY : Viking, 2012), p. 187.

Thomas Merton's Hermitage

My god-daughter just posted a Thomas Merton quote on Facebook and it led me to Google "merton hermitage" -- actually, I googled "merton germitage" but the software is so blazingly brilliant that it knew what I meant.

Anyway, I just watched a 10 minute You-Tube video of Merton's hermitage there on the grounds of his monastery in Kentucky. Very interesting.

And NOT at all what I have been imagining for years.

Have you seen any pictures of it? It's at least 4 times larger than I had pictured it in my head. And I'd always pictured it as wooded right up to his doorstep; whereas there are mowed lawns around it, at least when the video was taken.

I'm not a HUGE Merton disciple. I've just liked a lot of what I have read by him. Just not sure at the moment how this makes me feel. Like he is more approachable maybe? Or that his example is more follow-able? Although I could never quite put together just how it was he was in a "silent" order yet had visitors, wrote so much (a huge personal correspondence, too), and traveled across the globe.

Then again I'm a Lutheran. Maybe I just don't understand.