“Reuniting with Nature is like reuniting with your true self.  In a very profound way, the Shinryoku course brought me back in alignment with my true self.    Milena’s wisdom and her non-judgmental guidance allowed me to open up and express a fundamental part of myself that was often suppressed.   I became an environmentalist very young, starting environmental groups in elementary school and secondary school.  I ran anti-nuclear groups at two different universities in Canada.   Realizing I lacked a voice, I began a long side path of advanced education getting a BA in Classics a Masters in History. While working with immigrants and foreign students, helping them adjust to life in Canada, I began a long career in teaching that lead me to Japan.   While I continued play my music, and took up organic farming, I always felt that I was riding many horses, but not to the same destination. My desire to do something for the environment, to write about paganism and the importance of nature always got side tracked to paying the bills and surviving.   Milena’s invitation was like a deus-ex-machina, a hand reaching from the heavens saying here is a way you can combine everything into one clear goal.  And what a goal!  A number of times through the course, I was struck at how Shinrinyoku is exactly what the world needs now. In my music I have often sang about the need for science to reunite with spirit in order to heal the world.   I think of ecologists like James Lovelock and David Suzuki, who see that without a worship of nature we will continue to use science as a tool that destroys it. Shinrin yoku offers a path for people to reunite with nature and heal themselves on an individual level based on real medical data, while it awakens a sense of peaceful awe.   It also offers the fundamental arguments for altering society to ensure a protection and even expansion of forests for the good of everyone: medically, climatically, economically, and socially.  Shinrin yoku offers a way for us all to remember what is most important in life.  Through it, we may bring enough people to a higher awareness of their place in nature–enough to be that 100^th monkey of consciousness that alights the world to positive action.  I greatly value the lessons, and the time spent discussing with Milena.  I hope it is a discussion that will continue, and that I can be a part of spreading it around the world.   I hope I can help others realign with their true selves as Milena has helped me through this TMT Shinrin yoku training.”