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| Maple Bay State Forest, August 25, 2018 |
I'm calmer now -- sitting, surrounded, quiet. Just a half hour ago I knew I had to get out, or get to. I'm not sure which, maybe both.
What has happened to me? I've changed. Or, maybe I'm just now letting myself be myself, know myself.
For this past week, I've been in Small Town America visiting loved ones. And I've been camping in a fairly upscale RV park next to a small patch of woods. Yet ...
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| Yosemite National Park's Tunnel View, 2009 |
A half hour ago every cell in my body was crying out to leave, to return to my home. Not a conventional home or place, but Primal Nature. You may think I'm talking about "Nature" as something like the famous Tunnel View at Yosemite which is truly spectacular, awe inspiring, and primal. But, I'm really talking about places that are much more ubiquitous.
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| Redwood National Park, 2011 |
It's the "being" that I crave -- the "being with," "being in" nature, that feeling of smallness and completeness under a forest's canopy, within a desert's sprawling vastness, or beneath the Milky Way's arch in an intensely dark and bejeweled sky.
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| Joshua Tree National Park, 2010 |
For right this minute, though, I've found an ancient forest. A small patch this state has set aside. I found it on my way to a possible dispersed camping spot. I stopped on a whim after seeing signs on the highway. I followed a rough, overgrown road to its end. I don't have the required recreation pass to be here; so, I won't stay longer than it takes me to make this blog post.
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| Maple Bay State Forest, August 25, 2018 |
But, I'm calmer now, satiated. This feeling is similar to when I've been dehydrated, drank a tall glass of water, and experienced that visceral sense of satisfaction -- meeting an exact need, exactly the way it needed to be met. Every cell in my body says "thank you."
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| Drinking it in. August 25, 2018 |
The satiation is real, but temporary. When I leave here, I know I'll need to spend more time in nature again, just as I'll need to drink water again.
