I heard on a podcast a while back that doctors would prescribe a “geographical cure” for patients ailing from various conditions. It stuck with me.
Are you willing to take the risk?
Public art installation at The Gathering Bridge in Eden Prairie’s Purgatory Creek Park. Ten questions installed inspired by Mayor Jean Harris.
Artist - Teri K. Kwant
Three weeks have come and gone since moving to Minnesota. Spring was just starting here several weeks behind areas south. The tulips hit their peak bloom two weeks ago, trees have leafed out, and the understory of the woods around us is becoming lush and full. You can’t see through the growth to the other side anymore. Summer is coming and Minnesotans are hungry for warmer days and sun! I’ve been enjoying the cooler weather the past three weeks. We’ve had spring days here so sunny and clear that it just makes my heart ache to be outside all the time, even if I need a light jacket!
Minnesotans love items that remind them of this great place!
In a surprise plot twist, my husband and I finished our anticipated hunt for a new home within a week of moving. We were warned about the tight market here, and we planned for the long game. I’m excited about the move to more permanent housing and about the studio that I will be able to set up later this summer. Most of my studio supplies and equipment is in storage and I’m looking forward to returning to the loom. For now, we have so many adventures to have. How often in life that as adults everything is new? I can just now without GPS make it from our apartment to the storage unit, two grocery stores and the library. Making our mental map of where we are will take time. Each night we explore on foot – usually the walking trail that is just a few feet off our complex’s parking lot. It offers a nice 2.3 mile walk through the woods and wetlands near us. On our first walk we saw a beaver, geese, muskrat, and a swan. Clearly Minnesota was showing off a bit. I love knowing that wildlife is close – they live in the neighborhood as well. I saw on the news that bears have been sighted in several of the outer ring suburbs of Minneapolis as well. It is so green here – even strip malls are cloaked in green spaces, and everything seems to have been made with an effort to keep nature close. We’ve visited two of the many thousands of lakes in Minnesota. There is no end of things to do – we have so many parks and lakes within walking distance.
a local beaver
I am surprised about how quickly we felt at home and settled. It happened instantly. Our bodies have altered to the rhythms, and we began to speak of home as here and not as St. Louis. It has been a good move for both of us. Visually I’m told I look happier and more relaxed. I feel that way as well. It didn’t solve all problems, but it has made life have an ease to it. And when I feel out of sync, I step outside and walk to water. I watch the red wing blackbirds flirt in their outrageous displays. I watch for the soft ripples in the water of a muskrat going about the day’s errands and I feel reconnected. My sketchbook notes have picked up and I’m taking a lot of photographs for future work reference. The move will no doubt inform my work and I’m curious what will come.
Staring Lake - part of the wonderful parks here in the cities. Parks are everywhere and they are all beautiful.