When I first had "The Healing Woods" whispered to me by The Redwood Forests when I was thinking about names for my healing practice, I did due diligence in Googling to see if the website was taken, and luckily found that it was available, and I also found out about a book written in the 50's with the same title.
I didn't think much about it at the time, and went merrily along my way to purchasing the domain and have been The Healing Woods online for the past 23 years.
Recently, I decided to read the book, just to see what it was about and really truly love it.
It is not in print, very hard to find and pricey, but I found a first edition online and went for it and I am so glad I did!
The author, Martha Reben had Tuberculosis in the 1930's and decided to go live in the Saranac Lake Forests of New York to try something different for her healing.
She wasn't thought to make it much longer in the hospital she was living, but she wanted to experience this before she died, so an old forest guide named Fred Rice took her on and lived with her for months at a time in the woods.
She began the journey laying on a cot in in the paddle boat he used to get her to their camping spot and 2 years later, she was hunting, foraging and finding herself cured of TB just by being out in the woods and away from the hospitals.
THIS is exactly why I named my healing practice "The Healing Woods" because of my journey of healing myself within the Redwood Forests of Humboldt County.
My favorite quote from the book:
"The wilderness did more than heal my lungs.
While it dwarfed me by its immensity and made me conscious of my insignificance, yet it made me aware of the importance of being an individual, capable of thinking and feeling not what was expected of me, but only what my own reasoning told me was true.
It taught me fortitude and self-reliance, and with its tranquility it bestowed upon me something which would sustain me for as long as I lived: a sense of freshness and wonder which life is natural surroundings daily brings a joy in the freedom, beauty and peace that exist in a world away from humans."
Amen, Healing Woods Sister...proud to continue The Healing Woods Name!
