There is more hidden news this year than we can possibly report. But we choose to focus on the mountains and nature. The truth is that many of us are lost when we don’t find ourselves in the mountains connected with nature.
When we stop frequenting our favorite hikes, streams, rivers, lakes and outdoor destinations, our minds are not nearly as sharp nor are our spirits as alive.
What is it that makes so many of us require our time spent in nature? And why is it so common among those afflicted with severe depression, anxiety, PTSD and psychological ailments who don’t spend time in nature?
If we consider our collective time as hominids roaming this planet for 20 million years developing and evolving — learning how to make fire, then learning how to burn a giant edifice of a man in the desert in a temporary city. How much of this time were we roaming around foraging and sleeping mostly in nature among the flora and fauna?
The answer is around 19 million 998,000 years. Considering this, we have all been yanked out of being intimately connected with our surroundings and placed into a world where we compete in our concrete jungle for pay raises and promotions rather than food and shelter. Could this be why so many of us suffer from depression?
Certainly, our lives and our world are far better and friendlier than they have ever been before. Our standard of living and our ability to obtain food is better and easier than ever before, but spending time in the mountains, especially on remote trails, we are reminded that we have indeed forgotten something. We often feel more at home in “the outdoors” than we do in our stucco, concrete, and asphalt-shingled palaces in the suburbs.
Consider how we call everything away from our strange created cities “the outdoors” or “wilderness”. Isn’t this strange? After all, isn’t the wilderness more real, more permanent and far more significant than our created worlds with their freeways and office towers where we have buried the streams and silenced all nature into submission?
If this crazy hot summer has gotten you down, there is a solution: Get outside! Go away from the crowds. Get on a pathway where you can witness the incredible connection and connectivity of a wild ecosystem.
These ecosystems are far more intelligent and full of solutions than we ever realized until recently.
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