The sight of tender tulip and daffodil sprouts poking up out of the sodden earth in springtime usually makes me smile. But it isn’t springtime yet. So surprise, concern, even a little dismay is more like it.

In most parts of Canada, this time of year is supposed to be all about that long pause between fun winter (think sleigh bells and snowmen) and bunnies-hopping-on-green-hillsides springtime. This is when our short days blend into an endless dreariness sustained by cold, damp and uniformly grey skies. It’s a time to be endured (with help from various diversions which may include trips somewhere south, alcohol and the NHL playoffs). But this year, parts of Canada are already breaking records for warm temperatures. And our usual gloom is being shockingly disrupted by sunny days and enthusiastic spring bulbs.

A (really early) spring wake up call

I often catch myself thinking about our climate crisis in abstract terms. There are certainly enough news headlines and social media comments, statistics and research, documentaries, podcasts and movies to remind us about it every day. But, to me, it can slip into background noise that’s admittedly easy to tune out.

But that visceral response to something so commonplace yet miraculous – the sprouts of spring blooms – happening with such blatant untimeliness knocks me back into the real, the personal, the immediate. And the result is a pretty good case of the heebie jeebies.

I’m reminded, though, that I’m not the only one thanks to some surprisingly good news bulletins.

PSYCHOTHERAPISTS, THEIR PATIENTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

The realization that we (humans, animals, plants) are all in this boat called Earth together is changing how we approach mental health in a remarkable way. An article in The New York Times Magazine entitled Climate Change Is Keeping Therapists Up At Night reports that “anxiety about the planet’s future is transforming the practice of psychotherapy.”

It all began when therapists, addressing issues with patients that centred around anxiety about the climate, realized that everyone is affected by climate change. “In a field that has long emphasized boundaries, discouraging therapists from bringing their own issues or experiences into the therapy room, climate therapy offers a particular challenge: Separation can be harder when the problems at hand affect therapist and client alike.”

A greater good can come from this, though. Work is being done to develop a new kind of therapy that could pave the way for everyone (therapists, patients, family, friends) to come together, combining all of our strengths to help heal each other and the world we share. I can’t wait to hear more about this.

CANADIAN DOCTORS CAN NOW PRESCRIBE NATURE

Like forest bathing, any activity that involves intentionally getting out into nature to help improve your health is bound to be a good thing. And, wonderfully, that’s happening more here in Canada. Doctors can now add nature to a patient’s prescription.

PaRx is Canada’s first national nature prescription program. Started by the B.C. Parks Foundation in 2020, the program (now nation-wide) works with health-care professionals to prescribe time spent outdoors in nature as part of their treatment plans for management of physical and mental health issues. Doctors can include a free pass to our national parks as part of a patient’s therapy through the program.

The evidence-based program promotes the positive side effects of spending time in nature, including:

• increased energy
• reduced stress and anxiety
• better mood
• pain reduction
• improved heart health

I can’t help thinking that PaRx may also help encourage people to reconnect with nature on a more personal level. We need that more than ever. Having a closer relationship with anything instils a sense of care and responsibility with that thing. So getting more people to care and take responsibility for our environment would be wonderful.

As gardeners, we’re so lucky to have a special relationship to the weather, plants, animals, insects and all kinds of wonderfully wild and weird life. I find it heartening that there’s a growing awareness from so many more people about what’s going on in our shared world.

We aren’t the only ones who are noticing those extra-early spring bulbs. And that’s a very good thing.