Today's Heartlift with Janell
Sometimes the story we tell ourselves is not really true. Sometimes the story others tell about us is not really true. On "Today's Heartlift with Janell," Author, Trauma-informed, board-certified marriage and family specialist, and Professional Heartlifter, Janell Rardon, opens conversations about how emotional health and mental fitness effects absolutely every area of our lives. When we possess and practice healthy, strong, resilient emotional health practices, life is so much better. Read Janell's newest book, "Stronger Every Day: 9 Tools for an Emotionally Healthy You."
Today's Heartlift with Janell
278. How Being in Nature Helps Your Mental and Emotional Health, Part 1
"I’ve kept my feet on the ground,
I’ve cultivated a quiet heart."
-Psalm 131:2, The Message
How can the quietness of nature soothe a restless soul? Join me for a heartwarming conversation with Erin Lynham, a master naturalist, as we explore the profound connection between nature and spirituality. Erin's journey, sparked by her children's curiosity and her desire to understand creation more deeply, reveals how embracing nature can calm our inner worlds, as reflected in Psalm 131:2.
In her newest book, "Rooted in Wonder: Nurturing Your Family's Faith Through God's Creation," Erin helps us discover the fascinating world of natural theology and how understanding creation can deepen our understanding of the Creator. We delve into an unexpected success story—a children's podcast inspired by a simple question about Jesus's favorite bird, which led to profound insights about house sparrows.
Learn how reconnecting with nature can help us rediscover our most authentic selves, bring joy into our lives through newfound knowledge, and inspire us to embrace simplicity.
Download Eryn's "Rooted in Wonder" Study Guide.
Visit Eryn's website and order her book: "Rooted in Wonder"
Listen to NatTheo Podcast: Nat Theo
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A reading from Rooted in Wonder, from Chapter 7, nature Minded Growing a Healthy Mindset Outdoors. Richard Louv once said given a chance, a child will bring the confusion of the world to the woods. Wash it in the creek. Turn it over to see what lives on the unseen side of that confusion. What lives on the unseen side of that confusion? Have you ever experienced the hush of a forest?
Speaker 1:It is something quieter than silence. While silence is the absence of noise, the quiet of the outdoors introduces a new octave, a stillness enunciated by nature's songs. You can hear it from birds harmonizing, from branches, in the wind stirring up grasses and in a fresh blanket of snow creating an amphitheater of focused acoustics. This quiet is more than an absence of society's noise. In absence of society's noise, it is full, the fullest kind of quiet. Spending time outdoors, you can say, along with King David in Psalm 131, verse 2, I have calmed and quieted my soul. Hello and welcome to today's Heart Lift. Oh no, I'm going to say it again I am so excited, I'm just so excited. Today we have Erin Lynham with us. She is a master naturalist, erin. I really have been waiting for this interview. As you can see, my smile is just about to hurt my face. Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. I just love your energy, your excitement. I love meeting other people as excited about nature as I am, so I'm excited also.
Speaker 1:I always have been. I can think back, actually have been thinking back and doing a lot of heart work during this brand new sabbatical that I'm trying desperately to be on and think about one of the greatest memories. As a child we had a very small cement patio behind our very small house, 1414 Lilac Avenue, and my job was to weed, and it was just so quiet and I grew up in an alcoholic home, and so I think that just I can viscerally put myself back there and feel the emotion of just straightening up the weedage around that silly old patio and just listening to the quiet and listening to my thoughts, and so I always have. So, aaron, my husband has a question for you. Okay, we were talking about you last night. He goes this sounds so cool. I'm like, yeah, I know, and so he's very interested in how you became a master naturalist certified. I haven't looked it up yet because I'm just trying to just ease into my sabbatical and not fill it with things I want to do in my life. But how did that happen?
Speaker 2:Well, a few years ago actually, oh my goodness, it's more than a few years ago now, because I guess I certified in 2020. So four years ago, our family had been living in Colorado for several years. We've been here eight years now and as I saw our young kids engaging with nature, I saw this is powerful, like there's something spiritual going on here, and they began looking at the details of nature. And so they really led this. And as I began looking at the details of nature with them, I started to see these connections between nature and scripture. I felt like I was understanding scripture more, and so I thought, okay, if I can better understand these materials of nature, I can better understand the creator and I can better teach my kids and others about the creator.
Speaker 2:And so it really came from this desire to understand these materials, cause, when we look at the gospels, this is how Jesus taught he used sparrows and sand and wildflowers. He used everything that he and the father had fashioned at creation. So I thought, okay, if Jesus taught that way, I think we can teach that way also. Yeah, it's a pretty good method. Exactly, I think it worked.
Speaker 1:I think it works.
Speaker 2:So my mom, a couple of years before that, had certified as a naturalist where she lives, in Arkansas what? And at that time, right. So at that time I was like, oh, this is cool, but I wasn't that interested in nature. I just thought like, oh yeah, mom's out doing purposeful, productive things, learning about flowers and working in community gardens. Well now, when I had this desire, I called her up and I was like okay, mom, tell me how you did this, tell me all about it. Wow, well, just wait, it gets even more special.
Speaker 1:I'm going to try and be quiet. No, you're good.
Speaker 2:So I started researching and found that our local natural areas had a similar program. So a lot of cities do these programs, and so I signed up for it. It was a five week intensive course is what I began with, and my mom flew out to be with us in Colorado for those five weeks. So, because my husband runs a business and we homeschool, so she came to be with the kids, but this was 2020. And the first week of classes was March of 2020.
Speaker 1:So we got one right.
Speaker 2:So in my mind, going up to this, I had pictured myself out in the meadows and in the mountains and learning about the birds and the insects and the flowers and the habitats, and two classes and everything shuts down, my mom has to fly home and everything goes online. So, like my heart, is broken. So I was the only class that certified doing our courses online, which there was silver lining to this, because we homeschool. My kids sat with me through all of my courses, so they really got a second hand naturalist education yes.
Speaker 1:How brilliant.
Speaker 2:Yes. So it was really neat to get to include them and see their interest in it. And then, as things started to open up again, I was able to finish the education out in the field and start teaching classes with our program, which I taught for four years. And then I took further classes with the YMCA on wildflowers and birds and just began self-educating from there. The YMCA yeah, the YMCA, the Rockies here does like intensive naturalist courses, so my son attended a birding one with me. We did three days in the Rocky mountains learning from one of the top ornithologists here, bird banding and walking through the woods. He was, I think he was 10 years old at that time, 10 or 11.
Speaker 1:I think I want to cry. I just really think I'm going to be all sappy because we watched a Hallmark movie this past weekend that took place in the Rocky Mountains. Whether it was really the Rocky Mountains I don't know. You'd have to watch and tell me, or it could be in.
Speaker 1:Canada. But I just I've watched it twice because it's so. I mean twice because it's so, I mean just for the scenery. I just, rob and I are right at that brink of retirement from his our family business and I said, rob, that looks like a good place to go. He didn't hate the snow and the cold but I'm like I think he would be fine It'll fall out.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, and like a day.
Speaker 1:Yes, so I knew this. I was going to have to work super hard on staying focused. So you become this master naturalist and this hunger that you saw in your children led you, which I love, because isn't the scripture really clear that a little child would lead them and we can interpret that in many, many ways. But certainly my own children led me when they were your children's age. As I said, you have three boys and a girl. And you just told me and filled me in they're 12, 11, 9, and a girl. And you just told me and filled me in they're 12, 11, nine and the daughter is six. So you have your hands full. No-transcript master naturalist certification to creating heart lifters.
Speaker 1:Erin's podcast is a must. It's a devotional, it is a meditation, it is incredible Nat Theo, which I just love so much. How did that happen? How did this journey continue for you Heartlifters? Oh my goodness. Here is where you find Erin's incredible podcast for kids. But honestly, I myself have found such pleasure in this podcast because she just is enlarging my understanding of the natural world. So it's called NAT, n-a-t, theo, t-h-e-o. Nat equals natural, theo equals theology. Yes, natural theology is a thing. It is the project of arguing for the existence of God on the basis of observed natural facts. Learn more about that on your own time. For today, I want to let you know that some of my favorite episodes are episode 34, how Did God Use Math to Create Nature. Episode 35, can Bees Dance and I know that I created a whole study called the waggle dance. And episode 33, what's that song? Why and how birds sing. You must check it out.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you so much. Well, it's interesting, I actually never planned on the podcast at all.
Speaker 1:No kidding.
Speaker 2:One of my main reasons for certifying as a naturalist was I was working on my second book, Rooted in Wonder Nurturing your Family's Faith Through God's Creation, and my first passion is theology. My husband and I met in Bible college and I was agreeing biblical studies, and my passion has always been theology and teaching the truth, and so that's why this idea of it's called natural theology really what God reveals of himself through his creation. That's why this was so attractive to me, because it is a powerful, powerful way to teach truth to all of us, but especially children, because they're so visual and so engaged and so curious in the natural world.
Speaker 1:So I mean it's their bent, I mean it's the natural, I believe, God-breathed curiosity within them that we and culture really tend to squelch. I don't know, you have to be super intentional, and that's why I love you and that's why I love introducing you to my community, because you have to be super intentional. Okay, so is natural theology like a thing, or did you make this up? No, no, no.
Speaker 2:So natural theology was a thing and it was for hundreds of years. So this is really what science was born of. Science was a Christian endeavor. Science was the pursuit of the creator. Like you, look at a lot of scientists throughout time and they were truly trying to understand the creator better. So natural theology was that study and they're, like older books by that title of natural theology. Charles Darwin studied under natural theologians. This was a thing and I'm trying to bring it back is what we're trying to do.
Speaker 1:You're on it. You're on it, and so is I just was sharing with you another guest, Dr Drew Johnson, who wrote what Hath Darwin to Do with Scripture? That conversation was as pivotal for me now as a grandmother as this one is going to be, I have no doubt. So, yeah, natural theology Okay, Of course it bred from that right.
Speaker 2:Exactly so. What my husband and I learned while in Bible college is there are two main revelations of God. The first is special revelation and that refers to his living and active word, the scriptures. That's primary. While in Bible college is there are two main revelations of God. The first is special revelation and that refers to his living and active word, the scriptures. That's primary. That's where we get the gospel from. Secondary and complimentary is natural revelation and that comes from Romans 1 20, that God's invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world through what has been seen, so that they are without excuse. So he brings together these two revelations of scripture and creation and we get this full, rounded view of our creator. And so that's what I was doing with Rooted in Wonder and when it released a year ago. I'm kind of going crazy with a book launch, trying to get everything ready, and my husband had gotten me some equipment for doing interviews.
Speaker 2:And my husband listens to podcasts all the time and he's been trying to convince me for years. You should do a podcast, you should do a podcast.
Speaker 1:You're only homeschooling four children. That was my answer, I love your husband I love him. How supportive is he.
Speaker 2:Oh my word, oh my word. None of this would be without him.
Speaker 1:That's a whole nother conversation, but that's fantastic.
Speaker 2:So I'm like, okay, well, I have the equipment and he's been telling me to do this for years. And then I always thought, if ever I did a podcast, I kind of had ideas. Never did, I think, a children's podcast, because really I write adult nonfiction, parenting books and I have kids and I homeschool, but I never thought I'd be teaching kids in this way. So I get this little idea about what Jesus's favorite bird might've been, and so I write a little outline and I record it. That night I found out how to get it on the internet and I just put it out into the world. I was like this will be a little hobby. It quickly became a top 2% podcast and God was like no, this is what you're doing now, like this is your main thing, to the point that we have thousands of families tuning in and truth is going into these homes and not just kids like parents.
Speaker 2:I listen to it.
Speaker 1:Erin, I love it and I want to know who Jesus's favorite bird was. I didn't start there, I started with other things.
Speaker 2:Do you want me, do you want me to go ahead?
Speaker 1:I do. I can't wait Spoiler so.
Speaker 2:I love house sparrows. House sparrows are a cosmopolitan species, meaning they are on every continent except Antarctica. They're really all over. They are One of the most common birds in the world, and so my kids. We see house sparrows every day in our yard. We're always hearing their songs. And then I learned that the oldest discovered fossil of a house sparrow was found in a cave near Bethlehem where Jesus was born. So it's very likely that Jesus grew up with these house sparrows Hopping around, hearing these songs yeah, hopping around and hearing these songs. And we know that he talks about sparrows in the scriptures and he used birds when he was teaching, and I just love that. He talks about how carefully the father cares for the birds and he uses that to teach. So so much more. So does God care for us? Because then I learned that to feed a house sparrow chick one house sparrow chick from hatching to fledging, requires three to four thousand insects. Oh, the parents.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of insects that's a lot of wonder it is. I actually I've been watching it. We have a house, sparrow condominium in our yard.
Speaker 1:Do you have a picture of that online?
Speaker 2:I don't, I should, I should will you Please, just for us.
Speaker 2:Okay, so there's these parent house sparrows that have been coming in and out of it and they take turns. So the mama will come back with an insect I can see the insect in her beak and she goes in and feeds the chicks and then the dad leaves and he comes back and they do this all day long. They take turns, but they have to take around 200 trips a day to raise those chicks with insects. And when you think about that, in the beginning, at creation, god was designing these entire ecosystems with all of the plants to support the insects, to support those tiny house sparrow chicks.
Speaker 1:Yet even more so does he plan for our provision house sparrow chicks, yet even more so does he plan for our provision. That's why he used that example. But see how you just deepen my theology, because I honestly have never heard that teaching about how many it's, that's, but you're.
Speaker 1:That's exactly why you're doing what you're doing, and there's really something to it that's deeply profound and I don't think it's a mistake. I've been leaning on these words the last couple of weeks that when a student's ready, the teacher appears, and when the student's really ready, the teacher disappears. And it's an ancient proverb. And here you are for me and for all of my community, just being selfish here, just my community today. But you're here at such a time as this on the planet, positioned in the Rockies, like you, and being faithful and obedient to do what God has asked you to do. And I just know that there are plenty listening today that will now have a renewed understanding that if God takes care of the sparrow, he sure as heck is going to take care of you.
Speaker 1:Yeah 200 trips a day. Yeah, yeah, I don't want to run by, that's just. I mean, that's the awe that in my line of work with trauma clients, awe A-W-E is one of the greatest ways to heal, Because trauma heals through the senses and nature is sensory.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Heartlifter. We are going to take a pause here because this is just so good, so rich, and I truly believe, if we apply some of these incredible, beautiful principles that Erin is sharing with us, that our life will become richer. I have been meditating and meditating on a sentence. It's actually probably going to be in this new book project A calm life is a strong life. I heard this a few years ago now. A yoga teacher walked into the studio, she sat on her mat and she said a calm life is a strong life. And at that time I was finishing up my book Stronger Every Day and I thought, wow. And I've been thinking about that over and over and over again. And I am now here and I believe the teacher that is arriving for me is calm, with a capital C personifying her, and so I just invite you to come along this journey with me. Let's see where it goes, but I hope that Erin's conversation is really awakening in you a revived sense of wonder, w-o-n-d-e-r, and as she talks about and will continue to talk about, becoming a wonder.
Speaker 1:Conservationist Douglas Tallamy writes fighting what many see as a losing battle might seem a fool's errand if there were not compelling reasons to do so In chapter five, in Rooted in Wonder, aaron writes whether or not you have heard the term recency bias, you have probably experienced it. Recency bias, otherwise known as the frequency illusion, happens when you learn something new and then begin seeing it everywhere. This will occur as you spend more time in nature. If you learn the name of a plant, bird or insect, you will probably likely begin noticing it around you much more. As you notice it, you'll care more about it. This is a natural path toward protecting the earth. Yet you might also feel the tension that I have. If earth has an end date and the Bible clearly shows it will be destroyed, how much time and effort should we invest in protecting it? As you experience God in nature, you'll settle into a solid understanding of biblical stewardship that you can pass along to your children. You will discover nature to be an incredible means of sharing God's love with your children and others. I've witnessed this in my own family, while out in the woods as well as in our backyard well as in our backyard. So she says, this recency bias, this frequency illusion, is when you learn something new, you'll start to see it everywhere. I've experienced this many, many, many times. So this week. I just wonder. I challenge you learn something new about something in nature, new about something in nature, and then have your own little experiment and see if you experience recency, bias, frequency illusion.
Speaker 1:I have recently learned some new things about feeding my goldfinches. I put out the normal thistle that I've put out forever and ever. No birds, no songbirds, no goldfinches my absolute favorite. So I went up to our bird store and she says, yeah, they're not eating it anymore. They like this certain blend, and of course they had it. So I got it. Voila, I now have so many goldfinches coming everywhere and they just really are like a bright ray of sunshine as I'm sitting here recording. They're feeding and they're just so yellow. The males are very yellow, the females are just less yellow. But I mean, can you hear the joy in my voice? It's natural. They're just so beautiful and they bring me so much joy. And so I am learning more about them and they are just showing up everywhere. Frequency illusion I want to hear about yours. What is going to start showing up in your life more and more because you learned something new in nature?
Speaker 1:The second prompt I have is a little bit more personal. I shared my story in the beginning of this conversation about a reflection of a time in my life, my early childhood, when I felt very connected to myself, my truest, truest self, that self that is untouched by the world. I see it in my sweet little two-year-old granddaughter, elena Rose. She's so free, she's so inquisitive, she's so curious, she's so ambitious, she's so full of energy, sometimes so full she can't contain it. And mom, her sweet mama, is having to train her. I love this and you have a lot of energy right now, elena. You have a lot of energy. What should we do with that energy? And she's learning. She'll hit a downward dog or it's just. It blows my mind. So I want you, heartlifter, to think back.
Speaker 1:What is your happiest memory in childhood where you felt that sense of freedom, curiosity, your truest, truest self? For me it was around that brick patio. It was so tiny, probably tinier than I even remember, and I had the job of pulling the weeds, but I felt so connected. I remember the feeling and I have been spending a lot of time trying to embody that feeling again in my 64-year-old self, where I truly just felt like me. I remember daydreaming and having just thoughts and just was so peaceful the inside of my house perhaps wasn't as peaceful, and so, therefore, this brick patio just brought me out in nature and in touch with myself, and I probably prayed and talked to a God that I only knew of in the stained glass windows of my Catholic church. But where in your earliest childhood memories did you feel really connected to yourself and at peace, and you had ease and you felt happy?
Speaker 1:I want to hear about it, please, over on Instagram at Janelle Rairdon, or just put at Heart Lift Central into your Google search and you will come up to our Substack, our new online community, please. I am making that shift from MailChimp to Substack over the next 10 days, so it's really important that you go to at HeartLift Central and subscribe to the newsletter there. There is a free subscription and a paid subscription. The paid just is $5 a month or $50 for the year. That supports the podcast. That's actually the greatest way you can support the podcast and the easiest way, and you will then be getting weekly podcasts that are just for that online community there. They'll be about 12 to 15 minutes long, in addition to this podcast going a little deeper and I'll be going behind the veil of my life a little bit deeper because it's just a safer spot.
Speaker 1:So please do that. Stop right now and do that, because I know how you know, when we get off a podcast, a million things come our way. So just stop, go over to Heart Lift Central and subscribe. It's very easy. If you have any problems with that, just email me at Janelle, at JanelleRairdoncom. Okay, that's all of our business today. Oh, my goodness, I can't wait to hear your beautiful thoughts about your earliest childhood memory, about your earliest childhood memory and about something new you learned in nature. And be sure to tune in to Erin's podcast, nat Theo. Okay, heartlifters, Until next time.
