When The Mountains Call..

Last weekend, on the first day of Venice Carnivale, we escaped the hustle and bustle of that so-called the most famous 'Mask Carnival' in the world. Headed to the mountains.

The mountain has always been our passion. Greenery landscape will always bring tranquility and peace right to the soul. Every time we had bad days or simply nowhere to go, we always first thought of it: its smell of grass, its majestic appearance, its cold breeze, and its ranch houses. I don't know why but seems like the mountain keeps calling us to come and it feels like we belong there.

So basically, we headed to the mountains to be exact Monte Pizzoc to find peace due to Venice Carnivale. February is a special month in Italy where every city has its own carnival event. You might have heard about Venice Carnival, right yeah, it's kinda like that except the fact that in other cities they are more humble and simplified.

Back to the mountains, some time ago I wrote a post about this place  'White January in Cansiglio Hills' but because this time we explored more to the uphill, so I decided to write this one too.

Check this post too: 'White January on Cansiglio Hills'

Have I told you that Italy is so incredibly beautiful? Like, you will be blown away every single time!

Normally, during winter, this wonderful place must be under 60cm of snow but this year, the snow is so shallow and the sun brings an extraordinary heat that melts a big chunk of ice and uncover the dead grass.

Climate change, they said, and I believe this wholeheartedly. While the US suffered from Polar Vortex, Most Europe has to pull through the hottest winter since decades ago. We have messed with the mother nature.

As much as for its contagious tranquility, greenery landscape could help to heal mental disorder and prevent kids to develop any kinds of mental health disorder in adulthood, study finds. Kids who are growing surrounded by green spaces have 55 percent lower risk in developing mental illness later in their lives.

A study published in the journal PNAS by researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark explains the findings of what scientists say is the largest investigation into what being surrounded by green spaces growing up means for adulthood mental health. It was discovered that growing up near vegetation can mean a 55 percent lower risk of mental health disorders in adulthood. Which is a pretty significant stat.

55 percent is such a high percentage and as someone with 22q DS my son has a bigger risk in getting a mental disease when he is a young adult. This finding is somewhat making me happy because I am worried about this to death. Though it's not surprising at all that greenery landscape could boost mental health stability, but 55 percent seems too good to be true.

Green space seemed to have an association that was similar in strength to other known influences on mental health, like history of mental health disorders in the family, or socioeconomic status,” says Engemann. Though she acknowledges the limits of the findings. “It’s purely correlational, so we can’t definitively say that growing up near green space reduces risk of mental illness.

I assume there will be more studies on this topic in the future so that parents could benefit. As a special needs parent, I found this study interesting yet thought-provoking because it's like saying kids growing up in urban cities are likely to develop mental illness later in life, which can't necessarily be true.

Anyway, growing up close to nature could really make a big difference, in my opinion. I and my family used to be moving from one city to another city in Sumatra, Indonesia and one time we lived in Bukittingi, West Sumatra where the landscapes are pretty amazing. I felt really content and peaceful living there and if not for College, I wouldn't have been moving out from that lovely city.

Now I know where I got this 'mountains' preference...

Childhood shapes the way we perceive things. I hope Dario could grow into a healthy adult where he could find home in mother nature. I'll always be there to support him and enjoy the green landscape with him.

And how about you, where do you find your sanctuary? Is there a place that you feel you really belong to?

Before I end this post, I'd like to share my favorite poem about mountains to you by Robert Laurence Binyon.

Between the mountains and the plain
We leaned upon a rampart old;
Beneath, branch--blossoms trembled white;
Far--off a dusky fringe of rain
Brushed low along a sky of gold,
Where earth spread lost in endless light.

The mountains in their glory rose,
Peak thronging peak; cloud--shadows mapped
The purpling brown with milky blue;
Removed, austere, shone rarer snows
Above dark ridges vapour--wrapped--
Afar shone, Love, for me and you.

Sky--seeking mountains, boundless plain!
Old walls, and April--blossomed trees!
Of ever--young, world--ancient power,
The height, the space, was your refrain.
In us, us too, eternities
Made of that moment a white flower.