If you are one of the 80% of people in North America living in an urban centre, it’s easy to get caught up in technology and lost in the concrete jungle, disconnected from the world. To maintain your santity, you need to find a way to connect with nature. You really do.

Sometimes all I can manage is a walk to the local park or beach to connect with the earth. I read that walking barefoot in the grass can help with insomnia, so I tried this with one of my kids recently, and it worked; we try to make a habit of it now.

There’s something about spreading my toes on the cool green grass or walking barefoot in the sand, that acts like a reset button for my soul. I feel grounded, refreshed, connected to the earth, strengthened to take on life’s many challenges. A couple of weeks ago, I walked my daughter home from school, and we made daisy chains.

At this time of year in Vancouver, the grass is filled with small daisies. I’ve been looking for instructions on how to knot them into bracelets and headbands and the only instructions I could find say to slit the stem with a knife or fingernail and insert the next flower through the hole in the stem. This doesn’t work for these diminutive lawn daisies. I’ve been fiddling with a solution and settled on this simple method. I do not claim to have invented it, I simply share it here for you to enjoy and pass along.

A white butterfly alights on lawn daisies at Kits Beach. Photo by A. Lavoie

Step 1: Pick 10-15 daisies with the longest stems possible, saving the longest stem for last.

Step 2: Tie a knot in the stem, making the loop small enough that the flower head doesn’t pull through.

Step 3: Insert stem of second flower into the loop of the first knot.

Step 4: Pull the second stem through the loop until the head is at the knot.

Step 5: Pinch off the excess length from the first stem and make a new knot in the second stem.

Step 6: Keep tying daisies together until you’ve reached the desired length.You can probably be more careful than I was and try to make each stem the same length, for a more symmetrical bracelet.

Step 7: Complete the loop by tying the stem from the last (longest) daisy around the stem of the first daisy!

And you’re done, you have a complete loop you can use for a bracelet, head band or necklace.

Closeup of a Daisy Chain daisy.

So go ahead, be a flower child, connect with the earth, sink your toes into the grass, weave flowers into your hair, and sleep sweetly tonight.