What was your first performance to spend time outside?

 

 Gosh, I was a weird backyard explorer. I walk out the back door with some volumes of Peterson's Field Guides for Children series and teach myself how to be so good at Bird Call that the birds will answer me. I had a neon orange fishing rod that I would use for fishing (and releasing) in a local pond using leftover pizza crust for bait. My parents were the type of people for whom chasing outside the house was gardening or perhaps a bike ride around the neighborhood, so I'm surprised they worked with me.

Anyway, when I was 17, I first went to college as part of the Freshman Orientation Trip. It's a long story, but I got completely lost in the wilderness and the leaders of the trip had to use satellite phones to warn the program managers that there wasn't an emergency. Not the most glamorous start to a lifelong chase. Yes. I have also forgiven for starting out a newspaper about out for a while because it is like, what can I really offer? And maybe the answer is "nothing."

Yet I rarely find outside writing that I really love. A relationship with the outdoors is usually characterized as something that requires intense attention to a meditative practice, or it is a one-time pursuit to "find oneself", and often travel on the road The average person is inaccessible as a result. Cost or geography. Most of my writing is about trips that involve getting into a rental car and driving two hours north of New York City and nothing particularly edgy or dangerous.

I think I want to drive home to the point that the forest is everywhere around us and around us, and our relationship to the natural world is something to sustain and cultivate life, even if we are between cities Live in and even if we do not have the desire to put on a pair of hiking boots.
Is it possible to bring people back to the ground without physically distancing themselves from their environment?

Absolutely. I think this is really important for everyone, to be honest. The overload we live in is hard to avoid, and for some people (I consider myself involved in it, working in digital media) it is unrealistic. I am not just sold on the idea that technology is ruining our lives, or basically creates a disconnect for the natural world. In many ways it can extend that relationship: If I do not have access to GPS, for example, I am far less comfortable with solo cycling.

1. But we still need ways to get back on the ground again and relax our overloaded minds. I have become very active in the avatar work, which is actually a form of active, breath-based meditation, which can release both tension and physical pain - Radical Awakings I am part of. And this is something you can do at home with a Spotify playlist or with an instructor on Zoom. I like to own indoor gardening and houseplants since COVID was a hit. Just having the smallest green around can make a difference (and now my spoiled cat has grown and dried it for her at home).
2. Is a fundamentally antisocial act going back to nature for you, or does it help you reconnect others?

Is it both, honestly? And I think we both need it the most. Some of my fondest memories in the outdoors have been with a group of friends, and some have been completely single. You can tell a lot about a person by how they relate to the natural world; If they are honorable or worthless, or if they complain about mud or whatever. 

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