Shankar Vedantam

I'm Shankar Vedantam.

Some time ago, we invited listeners to share stories about their experiences with nature.

One person who responded was a woman named Stephanie.

She told us about a time when she was 18 and got into a serious car crash.

Stephanie was driving and her boyfriend was in the passenger seat.

They were both flung from the car.

Stephanie broke five vertebrae in her back, but recovered from her injuries.

Her boyfriend was paralyzed.

His neck was broken.

Sometime later, Stephanie found herself in a cafe.

It was autumn in the Midwest.

The leaves were changing color on the trees outside the cafe.

She looked at them as she drank her coffee.

Many of us will experience losses and setbacks.

We'll say goodbye to people we adore and to jobs we love.

We'll face illness and injury.

One thing many of us forget during such times is the solace offered by the natural world.

At the University of Chicago, Mark Berman studies our relationship to nature.

He joined us some time ago on an episode titled, How Nature Heals Us.

If you missed it, you can find that episode in this podcast feed or at hiddenbrain.org.