My happiest childhood memories are of times in our backyard. My mother had an old clothesline that hung out in front. It seemed like it stretched a mile long, and I loved sitting in the Sun while she hung clothes.
–Traci Lords
Today marks the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to enjoy this celestial holiday, be outdoors when I want to, inhale the fresh air deeply, and smell the sweetness of the newly blooming honeysuckle.
One of my favorite ways to savor the sensory experience of Nature is by hanging laundry. My partner built the most nature-inclusive clothesline, with a pulley system that extends near an aromatic orange tree and old-growth madrone, just a few steps away from our outdoor shower draped in honeysuckle vine.
I love inhaling the fresh air, tuning in to the chorus of bird songs, and watching my clothes gently dry in a slow, dance-like breeze.
I always take a few moments to look up and all around, noticing Nature, the clouds, the Sun, and the feel of the breeze.
Have you ever smelled your sheets after drying in the afternoon sun? Sun-dried sheets make a bed feel like it’s floating on Nature’s splendor—fresh, fresh, fresh! And I sleep oh so well!
The Clothesline:
Simple Yet Profound
Hanging clothes on the line with wooden pegs, so simple yet profound, connects me more deeply to the environmental cycles.
Fun Fact: In 1830, Merriam-Webster noted the earliest known usage of the term "clothesline."
Clothesline: a piece of rope or wire on which people hang wet clothes to dry.
Over the next few decades, Australians developed the "umbrella clothesline," also known as the "Hills Hoist," as a method of drying clothes outside in more crowded areas throughout the nation.
Fun Fact: The perception of air-drying clothes shifted with the introduction of electric dryers in the 1930s, and not necessarily in a positive direction. Following World War II, marketing campaigns like the 1950s "Live Better Electrically" encouraged widespread adoption of electric appliances, influencing attitudes towards outdoor clothes drying.
At the time, utility companies were rushing to meet the increased demand for electricity in postwar America. As more power plants were operating, the cost of electricity decreased. As a way to increase electric company profits, homeowners were encouraged to consume more power through the purchase of various electric products.
Hanging clothes outside to dry in the natural elements was no longer seen as essential and was stereotyped as a practice associated with poverty.
Here is another Fun Fact: Have you heard of the Right to Dry laws?
In recent years, there has been a trend among gated communities and condominiums to prohibit the use of clotheslines.
In response, 19 states have enacted "right to dry" laws that forbid clothesline bans. Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin have implemented these laws due to concerns about conserving water and energy.
If we all used clotheslines, we could save 30 million tons of coal a year, or shut down 15 nuclear power plants. And you don't have to wait to start. Yours could be up by this afternoon. To be specific, buy 50 feet of clothesline and a $3 bag of clothespins and become a solar energy pioneer.
–Bill McKibben
As my neighbor says,
"My dryer is 100% wind and solar powered."
While photographing her clothesline, she shared with me that, growing up on a farm, folks would hang their brightly colored clothes inside out and sheets on lines placed in the shade.
So, if you don't want the colors to fade in the Sun, this is a good tip!
Many affluent suburban neighborhoods still enforce clothesline bans,
often citing aesthetic reasons.
As Robert Long, author of Well-Hung Laundry: An Adventure in Clothesline Drying puts it:
"In the 1950s, clothes dryers and air conditioners drove us inside our homes, leaving backyard clotheslines and front porches as reminders of a time long gone. Before that, the clothesline provided quiet opportunities for an older generation to pass something to the next generation.
My children didn't learn much from watching me stuff the wet laundry into the dryer. I began to see how modern conveniences could take away: As the clothes dryer evolved from a luxury to a necessity in American culture, a valued part of everyday life was left behind.
A generation ago, the backyard clothesline prompted conversations between neighbors. People shared recipes, discussed homemade remedies. The garments hung on a clothesline and how they were hung told neighbors the size, age, adult occupation, economic status, and tidiness of the new family that moved in.
Years later, my simple clothesline pulled me out of the house where I could experience Nature and the seasons, where I could wave to neighbors, where I could see for myself what weather might lie ahead for the upcoming day."
The Way of Friluftsliv
I will always remember meeting 'Anne' in the hallway of the residential care community where I worked as an activity director.
Anne lived with her husband for nearly sixty years in their handmade cabin in the Santa Lucia mountains overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
They were true homesteaders; Anne churned her butter, grew much of the food they consumed, and spent more time outdoors than indoors.
After her husband died, Anne moved from her rural oasis into an assisted living facility in town.
The day I found her, she was frantically walking the halls with a large bag filled with clothes hanging from her walker.
"Anne, are you okay?" I asked.
She responded with tears in her eyes,
"I just want to do my own laundry!"
Anne's new home did not provide her with opportunities for the 'rewardingly inconvenient life' so praised in the Blue Zones. She longed to continue having independence, autonomy, and value.
Anne no longer had daily access to nature-rich outdoor spaces where she could experience fresh air, garden, listen to and enjoy the birds, and hang her laundry on a clothesline—one of her favorite chores.
Anne's mental and physical health, wellbeing, and quality of life deteriorated rapidly.
Outdoor living, known as 'Friluftsliv' in Norway, was her way of life for decades.
Pronounced free-loofts-liv, it translates as "open-air-life" and was popularized in 1859 by the Norwegian playwright and poet Henrik Ibsen, who used the term to describe the value of spending time in remote locations outdoors for spiritual, mental, and physical wellbeing.
Children in Norway attend friluftsliv schools where they are outdoors 80% of the time!
The Art of Care Outdoors
The Care Outdoors Approach emphasizes daily interactions with our outdoor spaces—patios, gardens, forest trails, beaches, balconies, and even window views of natural landscapes. From passive to active engagement, these daily interactions become a way of life, a form of care, outdoors.
With Care Outdoors:
we optimize the therapeutic value of our outdoor spaces by intentionally engaging with them daily. Nature is not a backdrop; Nature becomes the forefront of all our design, policy, programs, and practices.
Comfortable chairs, shade, clotheslines, gardens, and bird baths—these amenities beckon us outdoors, ensuring comfort and purpose in our outdoor experience.
In Debbie Carroll and Mark Rendell's research for their book Why Don't We Go Into the Garden? The Care Culture Handbook,
they discovered:
"The evidence from our research also identified that increasing engagement with the current outside space has little to do with needing more time, more money, or more staff.
Rather, it is all about the value placed by the care setting as a whole on the outdoor space to aid in the care and support of individual residents. Some of the most actively used gardens in our research were those that had the least money spent on them and the fewest features."
Valuing daily outdoor engagement as a form of care is the primary key to maximizing the therapeutic benefits of outdoor spaces.
While brief moments of engagement with Nature can boost our wellbeing, we need to develop Nature Connection Practices for enduring change and lasting wellbeing benefits. These are repeated ways of engaging with Nature that become part of our everyday lives and routines."
–Nature Connectedness Research Group, University of Derby
Consider your outdoor spaces—at home, work, school, or care center.
How frequently do you interact with these outdoor spaces each day?
People of all ages who can access Nature independently often spend less time outdoors than previous generations.
Accessing the outdoors and Nature can be challenging for older adults living in residential care communities, individuals living with dementia or mobility impairments, those who live independently with in-home care and support, children and adolescents,
primarily when their ability to do so depends on others.
Addressing Nature Deprivation
Some researchers believe human disconnection from Nature may cause physical, emotional, and psychological illness.
Dr. Garuth Chalfont, a health researcher and leading practitioner in the art and science of using the outdoors for the health and wellbeing of people living with dementia, refers to nature disconnection as Impaired Nature Relatedness:
Damaged or weakened personal connection to nature (plants, animals, earth, water, sun, sky, and climate) due to a reduction in nature-based stimulation, sufficient to cause adverse health effects.
―Dr. Garuth Chalfont
Moreover, Richard Louv, has coined the term Nature-Deficit Disorder:
Nature-deficit disorder is not a medical diagnosis but a useful term—a metaphor—to describe what many of us believe are the human costs of alienation from Nature: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses, a rising rate of myopia, child and adult obesity, Vitamin D deficiency, and other maladies.
―Richard Louv
All Ages Need Daily Access to Fresh Air & Sunlight
Ô, Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on Earth.
― Roman Payne
Being indoors for extended periods can negatively impact mood, potentially leading to depression and stress, which can, in turn, disrupt sleep patterns, according to the National Sleep Foundation.
Research shows lack of exposure to natural sunlight, which helps regulate the body's sleep-wake rhythms, can further exacerbate sleep issues.
Prolonged lack of natural sunlight can lead to various health effects, including weakened immune system, low energy levels, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), weaker bones, and weight gain due to reduced production of vitamin D and serotonin, disruption of circadian rhythm, and slowed metabolism.
Care Outdoors =
Numerous studies show that the great outdoors, fresh air, and sunlight benefit all ages. These benefits include reducing feelings of loneliness and isolation, inspiring awe and gratitude, increasing physical activity, fostering connectedness, balancing mood, improving cognitive function, strengthening immunity, promoting social inclusion, reducing stress, promoting healing, bolstering digestion, improving sleep and hydration, and generating joy, calm, gratitude, pain reduction, and wellbeing.
Summer Solstice, the longest day of sunlight of the year, graces us with its golden embrace; I am reminded of the simple outdoor rituals. Hanging clothes on a line, a seemingly mundane task, becomes a dance with Nature as clothes and sheets sway in the breeze. In the warmth of the Sun, we can fully experience a timeless tradition of outdoor care, mindfulness, and environmental connectedness.
The Sun: We now send greetings and thanks to our eldest Brother, the Sun. Each day without fail he travels the sky from east to west, bringing the light of a new day. He is the source of all the fires of life. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to our Brother, the Sun.
–Excerpt from the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address, Greetings to the Natural World
As I gather my freshly sundried sheets, I enjoy a moment of reverence for the Sun, wind, and the beauty of our shared home.
On this longest day, may we rekindle our relationship with Nature in the simple yet profound, intentional acts that ground us and connect us to the awe-inspiring world around us.
