Dispatches from the deck: What led to the decision to spend half of every day outside

I’m living on my deck in the borough of State College. To be a bit more specific, my goal is to be outdoors 50% of each day, and actually doing as many daily functions as possible outdoors will get you there. I began on Sept. 1 and I will go until Nov. 9. Seventy days in honor of my 70th year on earth.

Most people think of being outdoors as something you do as an extracurricular activity. Maybe you go for a bike ride, or walk a dog. But this doesn’t cut it for 12 hours a day outdoors. You’ve got to get serious — eat, sleep, work, create, dance, do yoga, visit with friends, read, study — live outside.

Why? Why do this? Why at 70 years old, when comfort and ease should be more a part of my life, would I choose to do something actually rather difficult, and uncomfortable in many ways?

My desires and lifes’ circumstances have met here on these wooden planks to take me to an unknown future.

Here’s how it all started.

In January of 2020, I decided to live in my tent on land we own in Clearfield County. The guide tent has walls and a deck floor. It’s roomy and there is a bunk bed with an air mattress. Also propane heat!

I spent the month in silence really. You know how the snow can be such an insulator of sound? All I could hear was my own heartbeat. I spent my days cooking my dinners on the fire, and nature journaling. I also continued working as a professor of World Campus online for Penn State. I enjoyed such peace and contentment that it was during this time that I set the goal of living outdoors half of the time. I just didn’t know how ... yet.

My purpose for tent living back then was to reconnect with nature and learn more of her ways to better understand what I am to do about the environmental catastrophe that seems so inevitable. When my month ended, my husband and I hopped a plane to Brazil to see my son, his wife and grandson, and when we got back — the pandemic!

The pandemic years — 2020-2021 — were a blur. How do we survive this? What is happening? How do I stay healthy? Especially, how does my husband stay healthy since he has an underlying condition, heart failure that would be a co-morbidity making him especially vulnerable to COVID.

I began in earnest to follow a protocol or a rule, as they say in the monastery. My rule is the 7 essentials of well-being. Each day I pay attention to each essential, and in so doing, I cover the base for my health on every level — mind, body spirit.

Here are the essentials: Food, Movement, Creativity, Nature, Emotions, Sleep, and Spiritual Practice.

We both fared well those two years, regarding COVID. This summer, my husband’s heart failure became an issue. He was retaining water and struggling.

I found myself in full caregiver mode. I was either running to the hospital, or staying up at night with him, or making appointments, or buying and making low sodium meals.

What I realized was that I had to give up everything extra to stay home and take care of my husband during this time. That meant no more teaching yoga classes, no more giving retreats, no more coffee dates with friends, no more taking care of guests at our tents. Not forever, (I hope) but for now.

It was when I realized I needed to stay home, that the thought occurred to me that this was the perfect time to realize my long held desire — to be outdoors 50% of the time. Move out to the deck!

As any caregiver will tell you, it ain’t easy. Caregivers need to be in tip top shape! However, the demands of the job mean that you get depleted, pretty rapidly. It is an unsung role and an unsupported position. Even if you have children, if they live far away, how can they help on a daily basis? This is a dilemma that I am now addressing.

In fact, I began outdoor living the first of the month and things were going swimmingly, until a few days in and I got sick. Not from being outside, but from “running on empty.”

I spent a few days in bed, inside my lovely home. I have such great options! We are more resilient to the trials and tribulations of life if we have some manner of choice.

So now I am back to the sunshine.

Of course there is a greater purpose to my experiment than just to see if I can do it for 70 days. I am looking for a change of lifestyle and behavior.

What do I want to accomplish? Here’s my list:

I want to learn to let go. Physical and emotional baggage — all of it.

I want to find collaborators to design lives together where art and nature inspire ways of living that speak to the soul and give sustenance to our fellows.

I want to explore the great human potential as expressed by Wim Hoff with his breathing and cold exposure protocol. Where one can have more say over the autonomic nervous system. Hence my outdoor shower and ice bath tub!

I’ll Detox with David Avocado (Wolfe) who teaches us that we achieve strength through cleansing and giving our bodies the best foods. I’ll be shopping at the farmers market and grilling and cooking over an open fire.

I will be the artist/monk/mystic as taught by Christine Valtners Paintner. Maybe I’ll create a self portrait and perhaps write on my new Substack.

I’ll keep track of what I do and what I learn. I’ll use it to shape another way of life.There is no going back to the old ways, as far as I can see.

The world is in transition. Call it an evolutionary shift. And how are we called to co-create a new earth?

The transhuman agenda looms, with big promises. The metaverse, AI, technology has it all sewn up, if you ask the technocrats.

I’m looking for a green pathway elsewhere. I’m banking on Nature.

I wish to know intimately, my human capabilities. Especially those that I have been programmed not to believe in or understand. How am I part of nature and how can I be aware of the intelligence there?

I invite readers to join me in reading the book I chose for this adventure — “Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence,” by James Bridle.

In October, I will have a deck discussion with anyone who would like to join!

Look for my next dispatch from the deck with details on my daily schedule for well-being, my first ice bath, and insights from watching the creatures who share my habitat. By then I’ll also be enjoying night sounds from my teepee tent while I listen also for my husband’s bell.