In this Story... with Joanne Greene

By: Joanne Greene
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  • Summary

  • Joanne Greene shares her flash nonfiction, each essay with custom music, showcasing tales and observations from her animated life. Her book, "By Accident: A Memoir of Letting Go" is now available as a paperback, e-book, and audiobook from Amazon, Audible, Barnes & Noble, and your local independent book seller.
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Biographies & Memoirs Social Sciences
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Episodes
  • Nature and Forest Therapy

    Nature and Forest Therapy
    Nov 22 2024
    Joanne’s book, “By Accident: A Memoir of Letting Go” is now available from your favorite online book seller. Stay tuned to hear if Joanne will be speaking at a bookstore near you. If you’re interested in having her come to your local bookstore, contact her directly at joannergreene@gmail.com or get updates on her website at joanne-greene.com and make sure to sign up for her newsletter!


    In This Story, I sign up to be a nature and forest therapy guide. I’m Joanne Greene.
    A drastic response to the presidential election? Actually no. But I’m sure glad that I registered for the six-month intensive course a month or so ago. Allow me to explain.
    Forest therapy is inspired by forest bathing, which was founded and developed in Japan, under the name Shirin-yoku, in the 1980’s. Apparently going from a primarily agrarian economy to one in which most people spent 10-20 hours each day in front of a computer screen was resulting in poor health outcomes. The idea was that getting Japanese citizens out into nature on a regular basis would lower blood pressures and boost immune systems. And, what do you know, it worked. Since then, numerous studies, in Japan, in the U.S. and throughout Europe, have arrived at the same results. The science is well documented in the book “The Nature Fix: why nature makes us happier, healthier, and more creative” by Florence Williams.
    Forest bathing is largely focused on health outcomes and participants are medically tested before and after the three hour immersive experience to prove the benefits. I’m working with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy which broadens the focus from human health to the interconnectedness of all living things – including beings in the non-human world – like trees, plants, insects, birds, and wild animals. If we’re going to protect this planet, it’s important that we think beyond ourselves.
    In the course, I practice sitting still, in one spot, and notice what’s happening. On forest therapy walks, I spend 15 minutes focusing on what’s in motion, and then share my experience with the group. The forest is the therapist; as guides, we’re there to open doors. Rather than trying to direct the experience of participants, we offer invitations. “Perhaps you’d like to wander down a trail and look for something that calls out to you. Then, consider stopping and notice what you see, hear, and feel.”
    There are clear parameters to a forest therapy walk but within the designated framework, that’s been thoughtfully developed over many years, there’s much opportunity for the guide to add make it her own.
    Once certified, I’ll be able to take groups into natural places and help individuals to slow down and hopefully have a liminal experience, where time is altered and a sense of well being results.
    Right now, I love hiking but years from now, if my mobility is compromised, I still want to be able to spend time in wild places. It’s where I find peace, where my creativity flows, where I remember to prioritize what’s most important. To learn more about this experience, check out anft.earth.
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    4 mins
  • Election Aftermath

    Election Aftermath
    Nov 8 2024
    It’s the day after and I’m numb, crumbling under the weight of knowing that we are not what I thought we were….what I was raised to believe…what I hoped and trusted would win out in the end. It’s a feeling of mourning, of deep loss, not of shock but of resignation, the horror of evil going unpunished, of otherwise decent people looking the other way, an awareness of what it must have been for Germans in the 30’s to witness a collective loss of conscience.
    Would I feel better if I had gone door to door in Arizona or Nevada? Would I feel even more like a fool if I’d filled out five hundred more postcards? My contributions of time and money didn’t matter in the end, but they were expressions of hope, of belief in the overall goodness of human beings, of truth to win out in the end. I know that life isn’t black and white, that binaries only serve to divide, but where in a nation run by a convicted felon who cares not about policy or any of the values on which this nation was founded and built, will I find my place?
    I will find it here in my community where we treat each other with kindness…I will find it in the woods where politics do not reside, where I can focus, instead, on the interconnectedness of living things.
    I fear for my grandchildren who, I can only hope, will spend decades trying to undo the damage that will be unleashed. There’s a deadly virus in our judicial system that will continue to metastasize before our eyes. The future feels bleak and yet there’s plenty that we can do, today, tomorrow, and beyond, to strengthen whatever is left of our safeguards, to build stronger communities based on mutual respect, to extend a hand to those in need, to build institutions and alliances that take care of those in need of protection, that serve those willing to work, to care for their young and their elderly, to engage in acts of kindness.
    Germany reemerged from the darkness and so will we. Dictators die, pendulums swing. We know what to do.
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    3 mins
  • Tribute to Fried Clams

    Tribute to Fried Clams
    Oct 19 2024
    Joanne’s book, “By Accident: A Memoir of Letting Go” is now available from your favorite online book seller. Stay tuned to hear if Joanne will be speaking at a bookstore near you. If you’re interested in having her come to your local bookstore, contact her directly at joannergreene@gmail.com or get updates on her website at joanne-greene.com and make sure to sign up for her newsletter!


    I know they’re not kosher, but I didn’t know that as a kid. Lobster isn’t kosher either; go figure. Some Jewish people in New England make exceptions; that’s all I can say on the subject. Fried clams are deep fried, which means they might clog my arteries, and perhaps even give me indigestion, given that once I get started, I can’t stop until every last clam is dipped in tartar sauce..or perhaps cocktail sauce if it’s provided as a second option, and ingested, eyes closed, in a state of bliss that can only be described as foodgasmic. A soft moan might be heard emanating from deep inside my memory banks as I’m drawn into the best of my childhood by the smell of salt water and the warm recollection of tiptoeing between rocks on Nantasket, Crane’s, or Wingaersheek Beach during hot, humid Boston summers. When a grain of sand lodges in my back teeth, I smile, knowing that these clams are authentic. As if there was any other kind. Ew, even the thought of a faux clam is chilling.
    Clam bellies were an acquired taste I developed post childhood as I’d only eaten clam strips – the neck of the clam – up until then. For many Wednesday suppers, as we called them, my parents took me to the All You Can Eat Fish Fry at Howard Johnson’s. My mom would chide my dad for ordering a second helping, which was perplexing as isn’t that the point of the All You Can Eat Fish Fry? While they were grousing about French fries and fried fish, such alliteration, I would chow down on clam strips, fries and cole slaw. Now that I know that “whole bellies” as these soft- shelled clams are known, include the clam’s gastrointestinal tract, I understand why they’re so tasty. I also can’t unknow that and the image is somewhat disturbing.
    Fried clams, for the uninitiated, are Ipswich clams soaked in evaporated milk, dipped in some combination of regular, corn and pastry flour, and then deep-fried in canola oil, soybean oil, or lard. They’re as iconic to New Englanders as barbeque is to Texas, Poutine is to Montreal, and tacos are to Mexico. The earliest mention of fried clams on a menu can be traced back to 1865. It was the menu of the Parker House hotel, now the pet-friendly Omni Parker House on School Street in Boston. The hotel and dining hall opened in 1855 and on that very first menu was an original creation – the Parker House Chocolate Cream Pie, now known as Boston Cream Pie. And, while I’m digressing from the topic of clams, allow me to share that in 1958 –I was just four – Boston Cream Pie became a Betty Crocker boxed mix. In 1996, longer after I’d abandoned my state roots, Boston Cream Pie was proclaimed the official Massachusetts State Dessert. And it wasn’t a slam dunk with competition from the Toll House Cookie, the Fig Newton, and Indian Pudding. You’ve never heard of Indian Pudding? It's a centuries old dessert, perhaps our nation’s very first, made by colonists with cornmeal they’d been gifted by Native Americans and molasses.
    You’re welcome for the suggestion of a great Thanksgiving dessert!
    But back to my beloved fried clams. It’s sad yet quite special that they are both seasonal and regional. Wanting what we cannot have on the west coast… and, everywhere, throughout the winter months….makes the fried Ipswich clam taste even sweeter.
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    4 mins

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