“In wilderness is the salvation of mankind” Thoreau
When was the last time you were alone; alone with only your thoughts? No radio or TV influencing your thoughts, no cell phone waiting to ring interrupting your dreams, no I-pod in your ears deflecting your mind’s free flow of ponderings. Self reflection in nature.
When was the last time you were alone in a wild place? A place clean of manmade structures blocking the view of the far off horizon, a wild place void of man’s touch. Not a groomed park with marked trails and interpretive signs explaining what you should be seeing; a wild place of random nature as only our creator could produce.
Self Reflection in Nature
S.F. Olson in “The Singing Wilderness” quotes G.M. Trevelyan, “We are literally children of the earth, and removed from her spirits wither or run to various forms of insanity. Unless we can refresh ourselves at least by intermittent contact with nature, we grow awry.”
In today’s age of expected constant and instant contact with the rest of the human race, have we lost contact with the most important person, ourselves? “Who am I?” is a question that is seldom asked and even less often answered. For how can we know who we are if we do not find the time to listen to our own thoughts, free flowing thoughts empowered from the interaction of seeing, feeling and smelling the woods, marsh and wild fields.
A spring morning with the awakening flowers reaching for the sun with open petals and the scent of pine dancing in the morning breeze invokes ones thoughts of their own awakenings from the dormant winter. But, only if we are open to experience our natural surroundings without the interruption of the electronic kind.
A chilly fall day with dying leaves of brilliant colors blowing in a brisk breeze can ignite thoughts of one’s own life journey, but only if we listen undistracted. Fall is the time of passing abundance following a plentiful summer and the entering of a seemingly lifeless cold winter, an appearance of death. This transition of seasons can cause one to reflect on one’s own season of youthful abundance, and ponder the future of our own undeveloped years ahead.
To experience such a feeling of resurgence in one’s self that brings clarity to the perspective on one’s inner-self, the time is best and arguably only truly meaningful when experienced among the wilds of nature alone. Alone in terms of human contact that is; for once the mind is open to the natural surroundings, time spent in the wilds in anything but lonely. You will find a connection of the natural and spiritual kind endowed with a calm and clarity not found elsewhere. A true self reflection in nature.
I can remember the first time I experienced total clarity of mind and felt the emergence of myself into the wilds of nature. Sitting in my canoe, I turned to wave goodbye to my wife and two young daughters. They returned the gesture. I was beginning my solo four day spring adventure of turkey hunting and bass fishing on the Potomac River. Traveling in the canoe, I rode with the river’s current. Like the blood in our veins, the flowing of current make’s a river into what it is; a living creature flowing, moving, from its small insignificant bubbling from earth and gathers in speed and size experiencing occasionally violent rants, then disappearing, into another larger body.
I felt the river’s life flowing beneath me, moving me with her on our journey downstream. She allowed me to join in sharing our journeys, even if only for a short time together. Leaving my connection with the river, I beached the canoe and began to set camp.
Traveling by canoe alone with the only possible contact with “civilization” being a two mile hike over the mountain or paddling eight miles to my truck parked down river, I had only myself to rely on. Running to the truck to escape a thunderstorm was not an option. I drove the tent stakes with more vigor than ever before and paid special attention when rigging the tent ropes.
The first night I sat by the fire planning my morning turkey hunt to come. By the third night, I had not spoken a word nor seen another human soul. But I was not lonely. I experienced the warmth of a spring sunrise, the aroma of fresh pines, the sounds of rushing water always passing camp, the good night gobble of tom turkeys, the constant chatter of songbirds, all this and more kept me from feeling alone. In truth, I felt just the opposite and was never more alive, sensing God’s hand more than ever before when in the asphalt and concrete world of home.
All journeys start with the first stroke of the paddle.
Recently I have heard the concerns over safety and how hunters should not travel alone or should carry a cell phone in case of an accident. I cannot say that it would not in fact be safer, but never leaving the house is safer than driving the interstate in the same way I guess.
In a time of modern conveniences designed to help ease our daily life, the gap between man and his natural surroundings continues to broaden. This is not a new phenomenon, as writers from the beginning of nature writings have been advocating the same. My concern is that fewer and fewer people hear the story each generation. How long will it be before the human race has lost the very bind between us and creation that started our journey to today. If it has not already happened.
