Michael Hagerty/Houston Public Media
Isobella Jade at a pond in the Houston Arboretum.
Not long after leaving her home in New York to move to Houston with her husband and kids, Isobella Jade went through a divorce. She was forced to start her life over from scratch in an unfamiliar city, all white navigating the unfamiliar — and often uncomfortable — territory of splitting up lives and adjusting to the emotionally fraught landscape of co-parenting with her ex.
To get through it, Jade turned to nature, as people often do when struggling to recapture a sense of themselves in a new reality. And she was surprised to find so much nature to connect with right in the heart of our often miserably hot, freeway-covered metropolis.
A pathway winds its way past the South Woodway pond in the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center.
More and more, she began taking long walks on the trails that cut through the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center in Memorial Park. She writes about that experience and how it helped her heal in her latest book, Heart Trail: Love, Loss, and Mending from New York to Houston.
To talk about how connecting with nature can be restorative in trying times and everyday life, Jade met up with Houston Matters producer Michael Hagerty to take one of those same walks.
Isobella Jade sitting on her favorite bench in the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center. In her book, “Heart Trail,” she writes about how her frequent walks there helped her navigate a divorce. (Photo Credit: Michael Hagerty/Houston Public Media)
A pond covered with lily pads at the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center. (Photo Credit: Michael Hagerty/Houston Public Media)
Turtles are a frequent sight in the ponds at the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center. (Photo Credit: Michael Hagerty/Houston Public Media)
Signage in a pond at the Houston Arboretum & Nature Trail. (Photo Credit: Michael Hagerty/Houston Public Media)
Isobella Jade’s book, “Heart Trail: Love, Loss, & Mending from New York to Houston.”
