thoughts of Melissa

Tifft Nature Preserve: An Oasis Just Steps from Downtown Buffalo

Posted on May 5, 2014January 17, 2018 by melissaburgess

As the temperature begins to rise and spring and summer (hopefully) begin to creep their way into Buffalo and the surrounding area, it’s great to get outside. Exercise, fresh air, and a chance to connect with nature in ways that simply aren’t possible if you’re cooped up in the house.

One great way to do all those things at once is to visit Tifft Nature Preserve. Now, this isn’t my first time writing about Tifft – I first posted about it in July 2012, but I feel it bears repeating.

Tifft is a 264-acre nature refuge located between downtown Buffalo and Lackawanna, New York. It’s easily accessible and is a great way for you to get a taste of fresh air, connect with nature, get some exercise and perhaps gain a great appreciation for the world of nature that surrounds us.

I try to visit Tifft as often as I can, though I never get to visit as often as I’d love to. I could go every week if I had the time. Whether it’s winter, summer, spring or autumn, it’s a wonderful place to go. In fact, I suggest visiting it in all different seasons. The setting is so unique, and it’s neat to watch it go from green grass and plenty of things blooming to a snow-covered wonderland. You can go alone, with a significant other, with family, with children or adults, with friends…… anyone. They also have guided tours every Sunday at 2 p.m. and have other events throughout the year. You can even host a child’s birthday party there!

My most recent visit to Tifft was on Sunday, May 4. My father and I went, despite it being slightly muddy outside due to lots of recent rain. (Thankfully, I was smart and wore my rubber rain boots, so none of this really affected or hindered me!)

I find that I almost always use the same trails while at Tifft, so this time, we made a conscious effort to take a different route through a new part of the preserve. I saw the low-maintenance marsh trail and walked through a bit of that (thank you, rain boots) and walked up part of the trail that covers the mounds. We saw deer grazing, we saw the bat clouds, lots of geese around eating, other people walking through the trails, etc.

(Note: I’d never seen or noticed the bat clouds before, but apparently they’ve been at Tifft since 2012. They were installed in May 2012 by a UB professor and a group of students and are designed to educate the public about bats while providing a high-tech home for them. As someone who used to be really interested in bat conservation as a kid, I thought it was super neat!)

I really need to find more places like Tifft. The only place I’ve found so far is the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge in Seneca Falls, New York. I visited there last summer on a trip to Aurora, NY. It was nice, but it just didn’t have the same charm…. having to be in your car while driving through the refuge, not exactly the same thing.

There’s just something about visiting Tifft, or places like it, that makes me happy. It’s my peaceful place where I can just breathe the fresh air and connect with nature in a way that I don’t get to do every day. It’s my oasis.

19 Links to Celebrate Mental Health Month

Posted on May 2, 2014January 17, 2018 by melissaburgess

Did you know that May is Mental Health Month? It’s okay if you didn’t… I wasn’t aware of it until yesterday. But I think it’s a great cause and it’s important that we dedicate not just a month to mental health, but keep it in mind (no pun intended) all year round. Mental Health Month has been celebrated in May dating all the way back to 1949! Mental health isn’t something we should only be concerned about when it gets bad. It’s something that we should always focus on. Please note, as always, that these links aren’t meant to take the place of a doctor or mental health provider. If you’re feeling suicidal or need help RIGHT NOW, please call your doctor, go to the hospital, call Crisis Services or 911. To help kick off Mental Health Month, here’s a hoard of links I’ve gathered in regards to resources, reading materials and more.

25 Actions to Boost Self Confidence – although there’s no shortcut to self-esteem, here’s a list of 25 suggested things you can do to help improve your self-confidence.
7 Cups of Tea, an online emotional support service. It’ll connect you with an active listener for free, but please note: this isn’t meant to take the place of a doctor or counselor, and if you are feeling suicidal, please call your local Crisis Services.
Alternatives to Self-Harm – all sorts of things you can do rather than self-harm.
Bell Let’s Talk, a Canadian initiative which aims to end the stigma surrounding mental health& encourages those who need help to seek it without fear of judgment.
Calendar from Mental Health America for May 2014. Print it out – every day has a new tip on how to keep your mental health in tip-top shape! (PDF)
Exercise’s other benefits – a piece from the American Psychological Association on the mental health benefits of exercise.
Going to Therapy for the First Time? A Huffington Post guide on getting set up for counseling and what to expect at your first appointment.
How to Protect Your Mental Health: some handy tips on protecting your emotional and mental health as well as some tips you can use to keep yourself in shape mentally.
Meditation Tips for Beginners – one great tool to help relieve stress and keep your mind in check can be meditation. Why not give it a try and check out some of these tips?
MentalHealth.gov, a site run by the United States Department of Health & Human Services.
Mind Check, a Canadian organization designed to help young adults in British Columbia connect to mental health resources. Even if you’re not Canadian (or in BC), you may still find some of the resources here useful.
NAMI, National Alliance on Mental Illness, a grassroots organization dedicated to building better lives for Americans with mental illnesses.
NIMH, the National Institute of Mental Health, a government organization designed to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery, and cure.
Screening tools from Mental Health America. Please note that these are not meant to be substitutions for physicians or healthcare providers and are not diagnostic instruments.
Suicide Prevention Resource Center, the US’ only federally-supported resource center devoted to advancing the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention.
Ten Things You Can Do for Your Mental Health, a guide from the University of Michigan.
The Body Positive, an organization working since 1996 to encourage youth and adults alike to experience self-love.
Top Ten Mental Health Apps – from PsychCentral, here’s some apps you can download for your devices to do everything from keeping track of your moods to providing calming tools and relaxation techniques.
ULifeLine, an online resource designed largely for college students to aid them in finding mental health resources.

Miscellaneous

Prompt: Like A Tourist

Posted on April 30, 2014January 17, 2018 by melissaburgess

Prompt: Like a Tourist – As the weather gets warmer, more and more people are getting outdoors to do some sightseeing. After all, with the trees budding and flowers perfuming the cool breeze, how could anyone resist a little adventure? This week, write about being a tourist. Think of a specific trip you took. Where were you? What did it feel like to be a visitor there? Do you enjoy being a tourist? If not, how come?

1900073_10201914051076973_1835223332_n — March 2014, at the Capitol, Washington DC.

To respond to this prompt, I’m going to go back to mid-March, when my mother, aunt and I visited Arlington, Virginia and Washington, D.C. for a few days. It was my first trip to those places, and I certainly felt like a tourist, but it was an amazing trip. We got to see all the major sites: the Capitol, the Library of Congress, the Lincoln Memorial, even the White House. We saw Arlington National Cemetery, walked by the Washington Monument, visited the Newseum, went to a Capitals game at the Verizon Center, and even had dinner at Georgetown University.

It was an incredible trip, and to be able to see all of those things in such a short amount of time was amazing. Naturally, I had several moments where it hit me that I was a visitor, and that people actually lived in that city and saw those things on a daily basis. I wonder if they feel the same sense of wonder and amazement that I did during my visit; I’d assume after a while, you just get used to it and it doesn’t even cross your mind as a big deal anymore. That’s not to say that DC locals don’t appreciate those sights; I’m certain they do. I just wonder if they have a different perspective on it since they’ve got the opportunity to walk by these things every day.

It’s like myself living so close to Niagara Falls. People come from literally all over the world to spend even a day at the Falls, and yet it’s so easy for me to get there. I never fail to see the wonder in it, but I’m sure there are those times when it’s hot and I’m just like “It’s really just a big waterfall.”

A lot of the sites we visited in DC were definitely prime tourist spots, but others were a mix of tourists and simply people who live there on a daily basis. For instance, the Capitol is a great example of this. There’s loads of tourists and schoolkids waiting for tours of the Rotunda, etc., but there’s also businessmen (and women) walking around in suits on their way to an important meeting. It’s strange to be in that mix, but at the same time, I didn’t feel like I was in the way.

So I do enjoy being a tourist. I love getting little glimpses of a place while also having the realization that while many people there are tourists, others call it home every day. While my mother and I were both astounded at standing in front of the Capitol, there are people who walk by it every day just to get to work. And I think that’s incredible; to know that everyone has a different experience there, and this place is home for some but for others, it’s a point on a map that you pass through. To know that I may only be there an hour, a day, or a week, but there are people who don’t leave, who make a life there and who ground themselves in that exact spot where I simply walk by.

Miscellaneous

Prompt: The Song That Changed Everything

Posted on April 30, 2014January 17, 2018 by melissaburgess

I can feel my hands shaking as I walk through the double doors into the emergency room. I shouldn’t be here; this doesn’t feel right. It seems like just hours ago that Marie and I were playing cards in the small, quiet kitchen of her apartment, listening to the newest song from her favorite band – no wait, it WAS just hours ago….

How could things have changed so much since then?

Continue reading “Prompt: The Song That Changed Everything” →

Miscellaneous

Picking Things Up

Posted on April 30, 2014January 17, 2018 by melissaburgess

I’ve been at a bit of a standstill in my writing lately. I’ve felt somewhat inspired, but every time I sit down to write, I feel absolutely drained. At nights, I just want to sleep rather than dedicate a few minutes to writing creatively……. and that sucks. I’ll admit I haven’t been at my peak, but I’m going to try harder. I just discovered a website full of prompts – nonfiction, fiction and poetry, updated weekly…. so I’m going to take some of these and try to turn them into something.

I’m also going to (hopefully) work on a redesign of this site. I liked the layout when I first got it, but Lord knows I’m picky and once I get too used to a certain layout or design, I need to change it. That goes for here, Twitter, Tumblr……. etc. Time for a change, so that will hopefully be coming soon too.

Writing has always been my passion, and if there’s one thing I don’t want, it’s that I don’t want to stop enjoying it. I don’t want it to feel monotonous or like I’m dreading doing it. I want to come to it with an energy and a spirit that refreshes me and opens my mind to so many new things.

Most of all, my constant goal is that someday, I can change the world; and if I can somehow use my writing as a channel to help do that, or to spread the words and stories of those who are changing the world in a positive manner, that is one of the greatest things I can do with my life.

So here’s to hoping…. things will continue to look up from here!