How to Find Nature-Based Spiritual Practices While Living with Severe Allergies (+ A Poem)

4 ways I've found to connect in the midst of chronic illness

Feb 23, 2023

A background of a green bush, covered with patchy snow. On top of the background is a somewhat transparent black circle. On the black circle is white lettering that reads, “How to Find Nature-Based Spiritual Practices While Living with Severe Allergies, Kandi Zeller, All The Threads, @kandi.zeller"

The outside is a place where I feel close to God. Holding a rock, dancing in the lake, meditating with my back to a tree, crunching through snow or sand, observing a tree frog—these are holy moments for me. They are moments when I connect to the Creator and all who have gone before and all who will come after. These are moments when I pray, when I bear witness to and participate in the interconnectivity of creation.

However, I live with severe environmental allergies to many types of pollen, mold, dust, and dander of creatures. And these allergies cause all levels of hell in my body, but most principally, my allergies are a significant contributor to debilitating migraines, sometimes lasting days or weeks, often the price I have to pay for spending “too much” time outside or with furry creatures…for taxing my body’s overworking system.

I’ve been in all kinds of treatment for these issues since 2019 and have seen and continue to see marginal improvements through immunotherapy, various medications and supplements, trigger avoidance, and more.

I honor that my body is trying to protect me through its allergy responses. I thank it regularly, even as I try to help it understand in whatever ways I can that nature is not its enemy.

For all of these reasons, I strive to connect to creation in whatever ways I can. Here are four ways I’ve found:

Learning from Indigenous voices: Indigenous voices are critical to engaging well with nature-based spirituality. May I recommend the following voices?

⦁ Becoming Rooted by Randy Woodley

⦁ Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys by Richard Twiss

⦁ Living Resistance by Kaitlin Curtice

This list is not exhaustive. Read widely and listen deeply with an open heart.

Rock collecting and reflecting: I’m not allergic to these beautiful things, and they are a small way I can have nature in my space. I love learning about how rocks are formed, what they are called and classified as, how they can be ethically collected and/or appreciated, and as a spiritual practices nerd, what meanings and symbolism have been attached to different rocks at different times, in different places, and among different groups of people. I have rocks in my prayer corner at home and love the way their beauty, history, and even cool feeling to the touch can ground me in a sense of wonder.

Winter walks: I walk outside a lot in winter, when my allergy triggers are at their lowest, and find beauty in this, even as I learn to appreciate the power and complexity of this sometimes intimidating season here in the Midwest—for which our infrastructure even here is not equipped, which I think is partly because we are alienated from the land as people in the West. Related to this…

Nature poems: I’ve started writing poems about the world I live in, giving me a sense of groundedness and reminding me of my connection to the land and the connection that all people have to the land. I want to have a sense of place, even when I mostly must observe through a window in a climate-controlled dwelling. For example, here’s a poem I wrote recently while observing snow fall outside my window the other morning: