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Mud Pie Magic - Nature's benefits for mental health.

Have you ever made a mud pie? I wonder if you know what I am talking about. Mud pies were just one way of filling the days of childhood, playing in the garden or exploring the park / woods. Digging in the mud, mixing up leaves and petals and muddy water to create imaginary potions that the characters of our fantasy games would use to develop their narrative. When nature was both our playroom and our toys, then its only limitations were the boundaries of what we could manage to think of. If we dared to say we were bored, we were told to go and play, that's when mud often became a feature.


Can you remember that feeling of being completely absorbed in your play that you barely noticed what might be going on around you? Perhaps my memories are somewhat rose-tinted but such childhood moments seem special because there was no space in my mind at the time, to allow worries and problems to sneak in. The important business of the day was all caught up in how many pies could be made before lunchtime or who could make the best potion with the greatest display of petals, leaves and seed pods.


It is likely that this single-channeled focus is what I am looking for, rather than an actual desire to sit in the park on a dog walk and start digging in the mud again. I'm not sure what passers-by would make of that! Yet the ability to shut out all the noise and leave worries to one side for a while, remains an attractive goal to pursue. Maybe that's why I find a walk in the woods so rewarding - I can pause for a moment, breathe in my surroundings and let the calm wave over me. I've heard people talk of forest bathing - the mindfulness practice developed in Japan which has become increasingly popular. I guess it's just about acknowledging nature's benefits for mental health and its power to relax and refresh us.


Several woodland trees, covered with moss and ferns
A walk in the New Forest, Ringwood.

I found this snapshot from a holiday last year in the New Forest - who wouldn't want to go exploring among these trees? I am reminded of those childhood games and stories that the mud-pie making version of me would create. Stories of fairies and other woodland folk, toadstool gatherings and tea parties and adventures to be had to defeat hidden troll enemies. Clearly, I have always had an active imagination!


Nowadays, that imagination is allowed to reveal itself on the pages of my books as my dressing-up days on stage have ended and I no longer mix up mud pies. So instead, I'll add a sample from my third poetry collection 'Polaroids and Petals.' I hope it gives you a little joy and a break from your busy day to pause here for a poem and a little Mud Pie Magic.


Mud Pie Magic


Did you ever make a mud pie

or a potion or two?

Stirring up petals

to concoct the brew?


Discover the bumpiest,

twistiest twig,

to wave at the bees

in a magical jig?


Did you collect up the seeds

into rows in the dirt,

with no thought ever given

to the state of your skirt?


Did you lay in the grass

and look up at the sky,

spending an hour

watching clouds floating by?


When you stand in a garden

or walk through a park,

do you wish you were back there?

Do such memories spark?


Is it only me thinking

would it be wrong to try

to mix up a potion

and make a mud pie?


Karen Honnor - Polaroids and Petals 2021


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