Shinrin-yoku to the Japanese speaking, or forest bathing to the English speaking, is a term used to describe outdoor activities. In reading this column you should understand why outdoors is a very important means of enjoying your life on Earth.
As a youngster, we lived on a farm north of St. Olaf Lake. Ice fishing was in our fish house on St. Olaf Lake or outside on Beaver Lake.
My folks would drop me off to fish with either a cane pole or a rod and reel from the shore of St. Olaf Lake and pick me up on their way home from New Richland. My bait was minnows from the creek by our farm or worms I dug.
My first gun was a Daisy Red Rider B-B gun used to shoot sparrows and barn pigeons. Later, I graduated to a 22 Rifle used to shoot gophers and other rodents.
At about age 13, I was given a 16-gauge Browning semi-automatic shotgun for hunting ducks and pheasants. (I didn’t believe in shooting hen pheasants.) One early morning duck hunting, I just watched as a flock of mallard ducks let themselves drop about ten feet to bust ice on the pond I was hunting. It was then I realized there was more to nature than just catching fish or shooting ducks.
During high school, outdoor activities were ice fishing, fox hunting, snow-skiing behind a vehicle on St. Olaf Lake or else behind a vehicle pulling me either in a road ditch or in a field. Fresh out of high school into the U.S. Navy, my outdoor activities were very limited. I did go ocean fishing and rabbit hunting on Mount Fuji in Japan.
I then went to Mankato State College on the G.I. Bill while resuming hunting pheasants and hard and soft water fishing. In college, 1958, was my first yearly of many deer hunts on the shore of Lake Winnibigoshish.
While in college, I met the best thing to come out of Iowa, namely Genie. We were married in 1963 with the honeymoon being a week of touring lakes and scenery in northern Minnesota.
We both had jobs in Rochester, Minnesota where we purchased an acreage outside of Rochester by the Country Club and Girl Scout camp. Pheasant hunting was out the back door and excellent crappie fishing was less than two miles away. We also went ice fishing to Mille Lacs Lake where my parents lived in the winter while running a small ice fishing business. (The walleye fishing was excellent.)
Our children, Deb, born in 1964 and Dan, born in 1966, did go along ice fishing to Mille Lacs, enjoying the shore life more than staying overnight on the lake in the fish house. Almost every night, the sky was full of bright stars and an occasional northern lights display.
In 1974, we moved to an acreage by Albert Lea with great pheasant hunting. In 1976, we purchased a summer mobile home cabin on Beaver Lake by Ellendale. Back to pheasant hunting, plus soft and hard water fishing with deer hunting on the same deer stand as 1958 at Winnie.
After 47 summers at Beaver Lake, we moved to a year-round home on Burr Oak Drive in Albert Lea that we bought in 1988.
Genie and I have enjoyed many outdoor-type activities. For example: The Big Horn Mountains above Sheridan, Wyoming, staying at Arrowhead Lodge in rustic cabin #3. (The first time was 1973.) Up and down the west and east coast, across the south and north part of the U.S.A., Camel’s Hump in Vermont, Outer Banks of North Carolina, teaching vacation Bible school in Canada, and bird and critter watching wherever we go. (Both Deb and Dan are also into the outdoors.)
The medical profession has given the term “forest bathing” to this therapy. The profession states the benefits are: Reduces blood pressure, boosts mental health, and reduces stress.
My summary: Forest bathing is for me!
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Bob is a retired AAL (Aid Association for Lutherans) agent, currently working on his master’s degree in Volunteering. His wife, Genie, is a retired RN, currently working on her doctor’s degree in Volunteering. They have two children, Deb in North Carolina, and Dan in New York. Bob says if you enjoy his column, let him know. If you don’t enjoy it, keep on reading, it can get worse. Words of wisdom: There is always room for God.