Arborvitae, a company based in Toronto, creates deeply reflective opportunities for people to nurture their spirituality through nature and realize the benefit of connecting with the earth, air, light, and water for their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual selves.

Marianne Karsh, the founder, is a forester and research scientist with a passion to help connect people with the earth. For four years Arborvitae has offered Nature and Spirituality during the ‘Becoming an Outdoors Woman’ conferences. The feedback was tremendous. One woman said “I will never be the same again when I go out into nature.”

During a 3½ hour session participants hear fascinating true stories of the natural world and talk about interconnectedness, mutuality, variability, survival — all themes seen in nature which lend themselves to spiritual reflection. There are also courses, retreats and seminars. The potential for healing with this work is profound. One person said that before “she only saw the litter, now she sees the beauty in nature and the beauty in herself”.

Arborvitae provides a much needed time of retreat, renewal and refreshment. Part of the general concern for health is spending sufficient time in nature, shown to be necessary for biological, emotional, psychological and spiritual health. With increasing anxiety about environmental stress there is a deep need to cultivate our connections to the earth.

Arborvitae offers a good quality professional service that is definitely needed by the “increasing numbers of people who feel that a lifestyle that does not celebrate earth is meaningless or worse –John Cobb”.

Benefits

• Enhanced Health and Well Being
• Inspiration For Living
• Improved Creativity and Productivity
• Resources For The Future
• Holistic Attitudes
• Tools and Techniques For Wonder

On this site you will find information for individuals and groups, schools, retreat centres, and businesses. The pages include information on workshops, courses, seminars, summer programs and events for adults, children and youth.

Interesting Publications
Check out: www.crosscurrents.org/trees.htm
TREES, FORESTRY, AND THE RESPONSIVENESS OF CREATION by Brian J. Walsh, Marianne B. Karsh, and Nik Ansell, an article in Cross Currents.

About Marianne

Marianne Karsh is the Director of Arborvitae, an organization dedicated to nourishing spirituality through nature. She is the former director of the Ecology Project at the Ignatius Centre of Guelph and former senior scientist at Environment Canada, Adaptation and Impacts Research Division.

An author, scientist, world traveler and seminar leader, she has been featured in numerous articles and TV programs including Eye for the Future, The Globe and Mail, The Catholic New Times, Woman’s Television Network, CBC, and Salt and Light Television.

Marianne is dedicated to teaching the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual benefits of connecting with the Earth. Since 1999, she has promoted Arborvitae’s mission of nurturing spirituality through nature (www.arborvitae.org) through retreat work, group facilitation, writing and speaking.

With over 20 years of study in science and theology, Marianne has considerable experience as an invited speaker to various groups both nationally and internationally. She has overseen a number of initiatives combining ecological activism and justice and has written and collaborated on articles and book chapters addressing key issues in science, ecology and theology. For six years, she served as Ecology Project Coordinator of the Ignatius Jesuit Centre of Guelph developing new programs in ecology and spirituality as well as leading retreats throughout Canada and internationally to religious organizations, churches, school boards and private organizations.

After obtaining a Master’s degree in forestry from the University of Toronto, Marianne has worked as a forest research scientist in Canada, The United States and Iceland. As a senior scientist for Environment Canada, specializing in biodiversity and climate change, she authored/co-authored numerous scientific publications, including a chapter in Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainability in the Americas: Impacts and Adaptations [Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press] and Climate Change and Biodiversity: Implications for Monitoring, Science and Adaptive Planning [Environment Canada].

Arbor vitae

Steven Bouma-Prediger
I planted three trees today
a white pine and two juniper.
Rootballs gunnysacked in place,
needles soft and silky,
sharp and prickly,
new growth showing
the fruit of spring rain and sun.

To plant a tree-
an act of courage and fidelity and trust
in a world groaning in the travail
of ozone alerts, acid rain, smog.
Arbor vitae.
Tree of life.
Sign of faith.

The crazy carpenter from Nazareth
knew the worth of trees–
the shape and size and smell-
and one day felt a splintery side along his back
as he was planted firmly in dark judean soil.

Arbor vitae.
Tree of life.
Signature of love.

And so we wait and work and pray
for that day
when heaven and earth meet
and rivers freely flow
and sorrow is no more
and the leaves of the trees
are for the healing of the nations.

Arbor vitae.
Tree of life.
Seed of hope.