​​It is spring, and Mr. Marmot has made his annual appearance at the gazebo outside my office building. He guards the rocky entrance to his subterranean abode, slouching back against the wooden gazebo base, short front arms resting on his chest, watching the world go by.  His lounging comes to an abrupt end when anyone or anything is too near. He glares, harrumphs, and then disappears down the burrow. 

The marmots living in Colorado are yellow-bellied marmots. Marmots are also known as rockchucks and whistle-pigs. They can be over two feet long, and weigh roughly eleven pounds. They prefer chomping on flowering plant stalks but will feast on green grasses and leaves as well - the important part is to eat, and eat all summer long, as they must put on lots of fat to make it through their long hibernation. They lose half their summer weight during hibernation, and hibernation is a major factor in their mortality: not enough weight going in, or a burrow not deep enough, means they won’t make it to spring.

With the arrival of spring, and plenty of green foodstuffs, the marmots lose no time in mating. Mama Marmot will give birth to anywhere from three to eight little ones. The gestation period is only 30 days - imagine producing up to eight babies in just one month!

No wonder Mrs. Marmot is a rare sight around our gazebo. She needs all of her energy to grow those teensy ones, and once they are born, she needs all of her energy to nurse them in the burrow. At 20-30 days the babies are weaned and begin to step out. This year I’ve counted five baby marmots at the gazebo, all roly-poly miniatures of their parents. These little balls of joy scamper about, though under the watchful eye of Mr. (and sometimes Mrs.) Marmot, and never too far away to quickly dart under the protective gazebo, inquisitive face peering out from the shadows.

Marmots are typically out of the burrow for mid morning and early evening meal times - much of the rest of the day they are in the burrow. This is partially to avoid predators like owls, golden eagles, hawks, coyotes, and weasels. 

Our marmot family doesn’t seem to follow some of the behavior mentioned in some articles. For example, there is no evidence of the burrow harem of several females - it seems Mr. and Mrs. Marmot of the gazebo are monogamous. Also, though eating is most likely high on their agenda, most of the activity I observe is playing, rolling, running around, and basking in the sun. They also don’t do a lot of whistle-warning, they simply slip into their burrow sanctuary. 

As the summer days become warmer, and the marmot babies become larger, Mr. Marmot seems to relax a bit. He waddles around showing off his successful weight-gain, and last year he somehow made it to the gazebo railing where he posed his sleek self for all to admire.

Seeing the marmots each year is something people frequenting the building take great delight in.There is a bit of happy hopefulness to see this furry family in action. Something comforting in their day to day, in the safety of their gazebo burrow, under the luxuriant green shade of old tree friends, in their play, in their cycle of life that keeps on keeping on.

Sources/Learn More

• Yampatika: Wildlife of Steamboat 
• Colorado Parks and Wildlife: Yellow-Bellied Marmot
• National Park Service: Marmot
• YouTube video: Meet Colorado’s Marmots

​When I first started listening to podcast pieces about Chap GPT a couple years ago, I felt one part fascination to nine parts dread. After all, I’d seen the Terminator movies. I knew where this was all heading. AI was about to take over the human world and run it for themselves - we didn’t stand a chance.

AI isn’t all Hollywood evil. It has helpful applications in small businesses, for example, doing the grunt-work of writing things like grant applications, proposals, etc. It can free up those in small businesses for more human-skilled tasks. AI can be used to polish resumes and cover letters, acting as a personal editor to some degree. On a broader scale, AI is used to improve efficiency of energy grids, and can help address the complexities of the climate crisis. When used for the power of good, the promise of AI is a more sustainable future.

On the flip side, AI raises environmental concerns. To name a few: the use of water for building and then cooling the electronic components, the high use of electricity to power AI, the large land area accommodate AI centers, the electronic waste produced as innovation results in obsolete technologies, and the negative impact of mining the metals used in AI. These concerns could be addressed by thoughtful policies - indeed, over 190 countries have agreements regarding ethical use of AI, but environmental concerns are not, at this time at least, included in these agreements. There is also the possibility that AI could be used to generate misinformation about the climate crisis. (UN Environment Programme: AI has an environmental problem. Here’s what the world can do about that.)

What about the implications of AI for writing? From some poking around on Google, the jury is out as to whether or not using AI to generate an essay or other written piece is considered plagiarism. Some state it is unequivocally so, while others take the view that since a specific work is not being directly copied from, using AI is not plagiarism. Consider, though, that AI is digitally sprinting around the internet gathering information from bazillions of human sources for its responses. Those human authors do not receive credit. AI, by lifting those author’s words directly, is certainly plagiarizing from their work, as is the person utilizing AI for their essay, however indirectly.

While it is true that AI has useful and meaningful applications, I continue to be a member of the Chat GPT resistance when it comes to writing. I think much of my resistance stems from the fact that I am a writer. 

One of the most frustrating and ultimately rewarding things about writing is working through the words, sentences, and paragraphs to say what you really want to say. Constantly checking a thesaurus, re-working, deleting and sometimes starting from scratch, are the ways I sift through to the essence of what I’m trying to get across. Mostly, writing is distilling many ideas to the truth.

Is the finished product perfect? No. Would it be more polished if I “ran it through Chat GPT?” Very likely. But here’s the thing. My finished work is written by a human (me) for other humans. AI can not ever write from the truth of human experience because it is not human. If it poses as human, the writing is dishonest. And one of the basic tenets of writing is honesty. It is one human’s truth of experience that resonates with another human. 

AI has real promise. AI has some maturing to do, and some ethical and environmental boundaries to be laid. While all that is going on, I’ll be writing my own words, from my own truth.

Sources/Learn More

• UN Environment Programme: AI has an environmental problem. Here’s what the world can do about that.
• SEH (Short Elliott Hendrickson): Will AI be Net Good or Net Bad in Terms of Sustainability?
• Gravel to Gavel: AI Needs Critical Materials, Fast! But From Where?

​Have you ever walked out of a massage feeling more stressed than when you walked in? Probably not. Most clients look more relaxed through their faces and the way they are holding themselves, and report that they feel more at ease. Some tell me how much better they sleep that night. 

What does the research show?
Numerous studies have shown that massage decreases stress, anxiety, and depression, in populations young and old, in preterm infants and their parents, in pregnant women. For example, one study measured salivary cortisol (stress hormone) in both preterm infants and their mothers before and after the mothers massaged their infants. Cortisol levels significantly decreased in the mothers after giving the massage. Although prior studies have demonstrated the benefits of massage for this population (preterm infants and parents) using observational data, this study was the first to measure a physiological stress marker. (See study here.)

Another study in 2020 looked at chronic back pain in women, and specifically the effect of massage on pain and depression. The study utilized massage techniques that focused on slow, superficial strokes along the back, shoulder and neck, and found there was a significant decrease in pain and depression compared with classic massage technique. (See study here.)
 
Massage can ease held emotions
You may have heard that emotions are stored in the body. One possible explanation for this is that in a situation where a strong emotional reaction is involved, a person may physically hold themselves back from expressing their feelings. This holding back results in tension in the muscles and connective tissues doing the holding. During a massage, when the muscle tension is addressed and released, the emotions which created the tension can also release. 

This is where the skill, professional training and emotional capacity of the massage therapist come into play. Although a massage therapist is not a psycho-therapist, and thus can not provide counseling during a massage session, the massage therapist can provide a supportive and calm environment for the client. This can include design elements of the massage space, like the colors of the artwork and walls, easy and soothing music, a slight amount of aromatherapy, and a comfortable massage table and room temperature. The massage therapist builds trust by tailoring the massage to the client’s needs, honoring what comes up for the client (words, tears, silence), and providing a space of acceptance and compassion throughout the session.

Massage therapy truly is both physically and emotionally healing.


Sources

• American Massage Therapy Association: Beyond the Physical: Massage Therapy for Emotional Health
• American Massage Therapy Association: A Growing Body of Research Supports the Positive Impact of Massage Therapy for Mental Health
• Mayo Clinic: Mayo Clinic explores: The role of massage therapy for mental health

​The soft breeze riffles the lime-green aspen leaves, popping out with abandon along gleaming white limbs. The ground is carpeted in purple and yellow wildflowers. Red, orange and purple tulips nod their heads, and yellow daffodils push up above lush grasses. It is spring, and birds are singing. 

Bird song is an enchanting accompaniment to the vibrant visual of the outdoors, although it can go unnoticed if we don’t pay attention. The sound of birds singing is a lovely gift. It has real and measurable perks for humans, and serves specific purposes for the birds themselves.

Bird song benefits our mental health. Studies have shown that hearing birdsong decreases feelings of depression and anxiety, and improves mental well-being, even hours later. The studies found significant improvement with listening to audio clips, but being outdoors provides the added benefits of physical exercise and being immersed in nature. 

Nature in general gives us a mental boost and reduces stress. As I wrote in my blog post
Nature Nurtures Our Well-Being, being fully engaged with the experience is where we truly gain positive results. That full engagement requires deliberate focus - not always simple to achieve. 

Has this ever happened to you? You’re wandering along, so lost in thought that you are completely oblivious to your surroundings. You are in a world of outer silence, inner noise. Suddenly, you remember that you’re out here to listen to the birds. Oops. You tune in. And, lo and behold, your ears are inundated by so much singing it’s like being at an open casting call for the musical Hamilton. 

This has certainly happened to me, more than a few times. But when I stop to pay attention to the sounds in the treetops high above me, bird calls and song, shrill and low, short chirps and long bars of sweet music, I am blown away by this free concert. 
Here are a few bird songs I’ve focused on long enough to take note of:

• The haunting call of the Sandhill Crane, echoing across the landscape. It is a repetitive call / gurgle, in the dawn-mist quiet at Pearl Lake. 
• The clicking, trilling, lilting, whistling, chirping, warbling tunes of the Yampa Core Trail Avian Choral Society.
• The panicked, discordant honking of geese as they wobble into flight. Is the fervor of their honking directly related to their wing-flap velocity?

With all this music, I am curious: why do birds sing? This article (Songbird Survival.org: Why do the birds sing) helped me understand why.

The main reasons birds sing:

• To claim territory
• To attract mates
• To take part in courtship rituals
• To communicate. 

In some bird species, only the males sing. A song can indicate - to possible competitors and potential mates - the capabilities of the male. A long, loud song is a mark of strength and endurance, and the ability to defend the territory. A more complex song indicates a male who’s been around long enough to skillfully accomplish that piece.

How lucky that the way in which birds communicate and strut their stuff is such a blessing to our ears. And how lucky too, that the sweet singing of birds benefits our well-being.


Originally published June 2023

​“I slept so well after that massage!”

Over the years, clients have told me how well they sleep that night, after receiving a massage. Here are a few reasons why that might be:
The massage work increases relaxation, and so the body sleeps more easily that night.
Massage and the massage office or studio provide a break from normal surroundings, allowing the mind to disengage from the daily stress.
Chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin are released during massage, which support feelings of well-being and greater relaxation.
Massage reduces pain, and sometimes sleep is negatively impacted by pain.
Massage decreases stress, which then allows for more sound sleep.

In many studies, massage has been shown to increase the quality of sleep, along with decreasing pain, anxiety, and depression. This is important. According to the CDC, "Insufficient sleep is associated with a number of chronic diseases and conditions—such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and depression,” and sleep is vital in the management of those conditions. 

How awesome that something that feels so good helps us sleep better, with no over-the-counter or prescription side effects. 

Learn More

• American Massage Therapy Association Article: Massage Therapy Can Help Improve Sleep  Cites many studies about massage and beneficial effects on sleep and a variety of conditions.
• Sleep.com Article: Why Does Massage Make You Sleepy?

​
Originally published April, 2023