Zoe Mele 340

                      I am using this final random blog post as a rant. Forgive me. Maybe I need a therapy session, but this will have to do to get my thoughts out. Perhaps a way to de-stress. If you can relate to this, then cheers! We are in the same boat together.  When I envisioned my senior year of college, I envisioned a lot of free time. Cruising through classes I found were "kind of" interesting, and spending a lot of time with friends I may not see again...for a long time. You know you see those seniors in the movies making the best memories and partying all the way to graduation. Well, in fact, it isn't just in the movies. I see these students all around me. I hear the music blasting outside of my house at 3:00 in the morning on a Monday night. However, I am NOT having these experiences. Far from it. I knew choosing to be a double major with a very difficult course load would force me to sacrif...

  Losing Eden-- A Biophilic World? Upon finishing this book, I thoroughly enjoyed learning how humans have a natural tendency to gravitate towards nature and how it helps our mental health. Lucy Jones writes about this intersection between science and the natural world and how we are discovering the reason WHY nature helps us. At the same time, we are also destroying nature. This book begs you to think about ways to combat our own destruction of a world intended to help us.   Lucy made a point about how 68% of our world will be living in urban settings by 2050 and that many cities should try to be biophilic. For example, Detroit is biophilic today. To be biophilic means to have a natural inclination to nature . Cities are beginning to plant small community gardens, are creating paths for bicyclists, and creating "green rooftops"-- gardens on top of skyscrapers. Creating a symbiotic relationship between nature and urban settings seems like a total oxymoron, but perhaps it is t...

Losing Eden by Lucy Jones Wake Up and Taste the Soil? Lucy Jones teaches us how nature can heal our body and soul   For my second book I have chosen to read Losing Eden by Lucy Jones. I chose this book because I myself have had a difficult year in my personal life. I wanted to learn how I could potentially use nature in my life to overcome obstacles. After all... we are living in California-- perhaps one of the most prettiest places we can be in our country (in my opinion).  When I first started reading this book, I did not expect it to start how it did. Lucy begins explaining how nature helped her out of a life-threatening addiction to drugs. Nature was a crucial component in her recovery. She would walk daily down the marshes near her rehab center. Once she was able to live on her own, she had to rely on a pear tree visible out of her apartment window to stop herself from relapsing. I have a succulent that I really love in my room. Although I don't necessarily rely on it, ...