after the race we caught a bus headed back to the start line, and walked the remaining distance, maybe a mile, back home to our motel room. by that point, it was almost afternoon, but wanting to make the most of every minute, we decided to squeeze in one more hike before we got on the road for good that evening. we packed up as fast as we could, with all the rest of our belongings thrown messily in the trunk of our dusty silver hyundai santa fe rental. the hike itself was beautiful and we stayed there for the remainder of the day, playing in the rocks, taking pictures and tracing where other hikers had traveled before us. when it started getting darker we turned back towards the trailhead. i remember thinking on the walk back, how much i was looking forward to sleeping while my mom drove the next three or so hours to moab.

i tried to close my eyes that drive, but as we traveled further away from the faint lights of the last small town, the light from the stars began to keep me awake. at one point they grew so bright i could see the outlines of the canyons surrounding us across at the other end of the valley. my head still pressed against the glass of the window; i heard the audible rush of the wind outside the car roaring around us. aside from some animal whose silhouette crossed the road far ahead, we were the only living things in sight. going 80 down the freeway, it felt like we were flying.

my mom, at some point during the drive, asked me if i’d like to play some music, seeing that i was still awake. unsure of what would fit the mood or time of day, i just hit shuffle on some disco music, and softly beaming out of the speakers sang the band chic, followed by some kc & the sunshine band and donna summer. we each took turns dialing up the music, song by song, until it was suddenly blaring out of the speakers. my mom opened the sunroof so i rolled down the windows. then for the rest of the drive, as were cutting our way out of the last stretches of the canyons, we were singing every word together. i do not even remember arriving in the next city, but my mom and i both remember every moment of that drive together. that night kicked us both off on a new chapter in our relationship as best friends and adults.

i did not realize it at the time, but i would come to savor that night and the relationship with my mom it left me with. the carefree events of the day encapsulated what had been the theme of my entire life and childhood prior and served as a wonderful conclusion to that chapter of my life. when we got home from that trip everything would soon be different. what i did not know that night was that my gran would die just a few months later of a cancer that we, at that time did not even know she had. her death would send both my mom and me into a series of emotional hardships that, while we could not have survived without each other, still led me to transfer schools in the middle of a semester. i was also inspired by that trip to stick with distance running and the peace it gave me. my mother is still my best friend.  

in my life now, i still think daily about the blessings i received from my time in the canyons. when i hear disco music, i am reminded of how the person who i was when i entered the canyons trail was not the same one who left them. concealed in darkness across hundreds of miles of the most beautiful part of america, i thank that section of utah for that serendipitous moment and the joy, freedom and friendship it brought me. the place gave me a joy i knew would be waiting for me again. in hindsight of it all, the blessing from god given to us in the canyons gave my mom and me the gift of each other and still gives me a moment to root into when i feel disconnected from the important parts of everything else.

“without the spiciness, the tomato doesn’t really have flavor, so they combine really well,” said balcazar, in spanish, according to sergio ruiz, one of the garden’s organizers. 

run by the little village environmental justice organization (lvejo), the community garden doubled its typical production during a slow, pandemic summer last year, indicating a local affinity for gardening.

“this just means that they love growing, they love harvesting, and they need access to the land,” said edith tovar, lvejo’s just transition community organizer. 

those not tending to their garden beds gathered around long tables under the central pavilion, chatting and playing mexican bingo. 

“we come here to destress. it’s therapeutic to weed and be with nature,” said little village resident gloria jimenez in spanish, according to ruiz.

as the covid-19 pandemic increased the nationwide prevalence of common mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression, and chicagoans turned to community gardening to counteract the symptoms. 

common mental health conditions during covid-19

studies conducted across the nation over the last year show an overall decline in mental health due to the pandemic’s restrictions. 

one in three people experienced psychological distress during the pandemic according to a study released this august led by elvira solji and a group of researchers in australia. 

solji and her team focused on the age-related differences in mental health impacts of covid-19 lockdown restrictions. they surveyed americans from april 20 to june 8, 2020, asking questions about nervousness, anxiety, depression, loneliness and more to gauge participants’ experiences of moderate mental distress. 

the study found that over half of 18- to 24-year-olds reported experiencing moderate mental distress, and that adults up to 44-years-old were most heavily impacted. 

in younger adults, moderate mental distress was associated with restrictions to public transit, restaurants, and international travel, while working from home lowered distress rates. moderate distress in older adults was related to the ban on gatherings of over 50 people and workplace closures. 

“the results imply that different approaches are needed both in the handling of mental health and restrictions for different age groups,” solji said in an email. 

insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety were the top four mental health conditions seen during the pandemic according to a study released in november. this conclusion resulted from the meta-analysis of 55 peer-reviewed journals conducted by the research team. 

a study conducted march to april 2020 also identified an increase in acute stress and depressive symptoms in the united states, and found that people with preexisting mental and physical health diagnoses experienced these symptoms more than those without.  

bronzeville-based psychologist lasonda a. wilkins-hines made similar observations of the chicagoans she treated. wilkins-hines said she most often diagnosed patients with clinical anxiety and clinical depression. she held appointments via telehealth and did not take on new patients during the pandemic. 

wilkins-hines, whose patients are predominantly african american, said she saw anxiety and depression peaked with the police brutality protests last summer. 

“that’s when things really made a heavy turn in my practice,” wilkins-hines said. “what i was seeing was a lot of people feeling uncertain, unsafe, confused, angry, feeling that hopelessness and helplessness.”

gardens that blossomed

community gardens across the city reported increased participation during the last two summers. 

sarah dugan, program facilitator for the city’s community gardens in the parks program, said in an email, “anecdotally, there was a big increase in inquiries for garden plots during spring and summer 2020, which seems to have tapered off to more typical levels this year.”

prior to last summer, the maxwell street garden in the near west side typically had a waitlist of five people, according to tess kearns, a board member and gardener there. 

“last year, we had a waitlist of 30 people and we had 15 plots available,” kearns said. apartments in the area with pool decks or community outdoor space closed those amenities last summer to prevent the spread of covid-19, she said. 

“there were a lot of people who didn’t get plots, but were desperate for the ability to be outdoors,” kearns said. “this year, our waiting list was 47 people.” 

to manage the increased interest, kearns said they adopted a friends of the garden program during the pandemic to invite volunteers to work on the community plots and take home some produce in return.   

the maxwell street garden became a place for participants to “clear their heads,” kearns said. “a lot of the stories [from last summer] revolve around just wanting to be outside after the mayor shut the lakefront down. last year was really hard.” 

mayor lori e. lightfoot closed chicago’s lakefront beaches from labor day weekend of 2019 through memorial day weekend of 2021 to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, according to a press release. the lakefront trail opened for exercise and transit with limited access and strict oversight june 2020; the status of the riverwalk and 606 was similar, according to block club chicago and nbc chicago articles. 

“we were like, ‘we’re going to the garden because it’s the one place you know you can be safe,’” kearns said. 

at the el paseo garden in pilsen, volunteer coordinator paula acevedo said they increased programming in response to “a spike in attendance.” 

“the space has been well-used during the pandemic,” acevedo said. “a lot of people were really dedicated to the garden. … people were saying the space kept them sane.” 

“it takes a village. it’s beautiful to be that conduit and platform for the community,” she said. 

health benefits of spending time in nature

a growing body of research illustrates the positive impact of spending time in nature on mental health. 

a study released january 2020 identified that spending two hours in nature per week created significant health benefits across age, gender, and geographic differences. the study broadly defined nature and emphasized that the two hours was a cumulative tally.

richard louv coined the term “nature-deficit disorder” in 2005 and has since authored several books on the health benefits of nature. 

“any green space will provide benefit to mental and physical wellbeing, so it mainly depends on individual preference,” louv said in an email. “more importantly is the frequency of those experiences. connection to nature should be an everyday occurrence.”

a 2017 study offered a list of the top impacts of spending time in nature based on an extensive review of existing research: reduced stress, better sleep, reduced depression and anxiety, greater happiness, and reduced aggression. 

different nature-based activities can impact the body in various ways. wilkins-hines shares her nature-based advice with patients based on the mental disorders being treated. in her practice, she focuses on clinical anxiety and depression, stress reduction and relaxation, and reiki, where she said she “manipulates energy to foster healing.”  

for patients with depression, “the [activities] that are most impactful are ones where you’re getting the sun because that’s going to improve your mood,” wilkins-hines said. she said the sun provides vitamin d that boosts serotonin, the “happy hormone.” 

“if you’re feeling suicidal and you’re feeling like you don’t belong, i encourage grounding techniques: to walk barefoot, to plant flowers, to plant vegetables – anything where you’re in the dirt and you’re bringing life to something,” wilkins-hines said. “you cannot change your way of thinking about the beauty of life [in a better way than] watching something grow into something, being responsible for the life of something.”

wilkins-hines said the impact of gardening extends beyond a specific physiological response in the body. 

“i think these community gardens afford people that opportunity to come together and share stories and to build interpersonal relationships, to network and to just give a sense of family, give a sense of connectedness. and all of that is beneficial for mental health,” wilkins-hines said.

the impact of nature and gardening on mental health has been known to many for years and prior to the pandemic.

kearns said she started to garden around the time she and her husband began the process of separation. 

“this is my happy place,” kearns said. “this was the place that i could just go and kind of forget about it. … i feel like it’s nourishment for your soul.”  

gardening can also help seniors and veterans, according to acevedo, who said seniors are el paseo garden’s largest demographic. 

while the pandemic may have intensified certain health conditions for seniors, acevedo said gardening helped their exercise, mental health and, for those who spent time gardening in earlier years, memory loss. 

acevedo also said the garden helped seniors feel less isolated, something the pandemic exacerbated.

“even their own families were afraid to go see them. they didn’t see their children and grandkids,” acevedo said. the garden added most of its new programming to benefit seniors, she said. 

acevedo said an afghanistan war veteran joined the garden from naperville, a 40-minute drive away, to volunteer his construction skills. 

“he said, ‘i’m on disability. i don’t work. i need to keep busy, or i’ll lose my mind,’” acevedo said. 

kearns said she thinks younger people have an easier time talking about mental health than older people. “everybody may be just as anxious, but nobody’s talking about it,” she said.  

louv advocates for children and families to spend more time in nature through his nonprofit organization, children nature network, to benefit all aspects of health within and beyond the context of the pandemic. 

“ironically, the coronavirus pandemic, as tragic as it is, has dramatically increased public awareness of the deep human need for nature connection –– and is adding greater sense of urgency to the movement to connect children, families and communities to nature,” louv said. 

“today, nature connection can be one way to heal psychological trauma of the pandemic. not a panacea, but one way,” he said.