Stephen Gleave

The historic town of Ancaster, nestled in the city of Hamilton, Ontario, is surrounded by natural splendor. Located on the Niagara Escarpment, a steep ridge that extends across the NorthEastern United States and into Canada,  the area is a refuge for part of the Carolinian Forest of Southern Ontario. Just as the Japanese practice of “forest bathing” is becoming part of international vernacular and practice, and business people have started removing their shoes in Central Park in order to get “grounded” the modern world is beginning to awaken to the healing power of nature. Nature, it appears, restores in profound ways. It not only eases physical ailments but also psychological stressors, which modern medicine has also learned are inextricably linked. But that wasn’t always the case. For generations, men sought to tame the natural world and build skyscrapers within concrete jungles, blighting the stars with light pollution in their wake and limiting the ability of the soil  and...