When the skies are gray, I come out to play. I love the chill in the air, I love the smell, and I love how the rain feels. I like how the Earth is so much greener, and I love the emptiness of the neighborhood. Not many people can appreciate that, and it’s all right with me. I traveled alone, and I felt the most alive surrounded by a fog or mist, an epoch if I will. Like the words from Bon Iver’s Holocene, “And at once I knew... I was not magnificent.”
Hiking through the mountains is my greatest relaxer. I grew up being a child whom would get up early in the morning to pack for a journey that I would travel alone. I wasn’t lonely, I was lovely. I’ve had some of my best memories alone and surrounded by wildflowers. It wasn’t weird, I was free. What accompanied me was a backpack with fruit juices and Wonderbread sandwiches. What I did to convince my mom was nothing; I would sneak out, and run for “miles, miles, miles”.
In a sense, it’s amazing how well I was able to take care of myself in nature. My adventures were one of the greatest teachers in life. I’ve learned that the weather was unpredictable; one time I sat under a pine tree during a sudden thunderstorm, and saw lightning strike a tree across the small river in front of me. It caught on fire until the rain put the flames out, and from it I’ve understood how powerless I was in comparison. Another lesson was how we can underestimate our abilities. I’ve climbed trees I thought were impossible; I’ve returned early from an adventure because I thought I wouldn’t make it back home before dusk; I’ve underestimated the magical powers of pollen, and how much it can kill your senses. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t see. I’ve learned how I could travel much further than I’d have ever imagined. And how resourceful you can become by having to journey on your own. Your brain becomes more independent and intelligent. You learn to distinguish wildflowers and trees by spending more time with them, and you learn to deal with the plentiful resources around you. It trains your memory photographically; In a sense I was never lost as I’ve learned to navigate the community. And it taught a little child to be brave: adults would scare me when they would ask what I would be doing alone; to which I would either lie, or run away from with wildflowers in my hand. Nothing had ever stopped me.
It’s so important to sometimes take the day and to retreat back into the natural world; especially in this generation filled with technology. I believe that many of us are becoming blinded and lonelier than ever, which is sad to realize in comparison to the days without silicon distractions. I have been feeling the most empty seeing myself and the younger generations being captivated by something that doesn’t teaches us how to live the world’s majesty. We spend enough hours indoors, that we forget to live like how our ancestors have, and so we are missing a crucial element of how to interact with the simpler world. Experiences of being alone in nature allow us to think for our own, and to determine what we value and believe. You’ll discover emotions you’ve never felt before in ways you could never explain, because loving nature will make you that happy to be alive—Eudaemonia.
Bon Iver's Holocene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWcyIpul8OE
