We were both immediately struck by the feeling of physical exhaustion while we were at the hospital yesterday morning. Even before entering, to move from the parking lot to the main front hospital doors there is an uphill incline, not much of one, but for the distance it took we both experienced a chest-tightening feeling of stress and strained leg muscles. Though we're both 81, we're in good physical condition.

Inside the hospital we chose to take the stairs up to the second floor to arrive at our scheduled appointment; we usually forgo elevators in favour of stairs in buildings. To their architectural credit, the stairs were beautifully spaced and easily mounted, and then there was a series of interconnected hallways to finally achieve entrance to the clinic we were headed for. Walking within the hospital confines, though not strenuous, also affected us similarly; extracting more energy from us than we thought reasonable.

Is there something about the hospital environment that affects peoples' sense of well-being? Of course there is; you're somewhere you'd prefer not to be, all things being equal. It is a place where illness and disease, accidents and infirmities are treated. No one wants to be in any of those categories, our health integral to our total well-being, so we are under psychological strain in those environs. When you're older the sense of vulnerability to all of those categories is enhanced. And we obviously were reacting.

Hours later we prepared to take our two little dogs out for their daily ambles in newfallen snow on the trails in the ravined forest adjacent our home. The ascents and descents in the ravine are far deeper and require much more strenuous energy and maneuvering than anything that presented to us earlier that day at the hospital, yet we felt no strain on our energy capacity as a result, despite struggling to maintain a firm foothold on ascents in the thickened, slippery snowpack.

We spent an hour and a half on the trails, stopping frequently as it happened, whenever we came across others from the community who had taken to the forest trails with and without dog companions, people who appreciated the incomparable beauty of freshly fallen snow on a forest environment, and the restful, spirit-enhancing quality of nature. These are people familiar to us, and who we are accustomed to seeing frequently in the forest environs, have much in common with, and often stop to speak together at some length.

At no time did we feel the exhaustion we experienced earlier in the day.

There have been studies concluding that people exposed to green spaces, trees and nature are healthier, extract greater satisfaction in life and live longer as a result. And from our personal, long-time exposure and experience we couldn't be more supportive of that conclusion.