How nature helped me become a better person.
It’s most definitely a common theme among people who can’t seem to find themselves and who have lived in an urban landscape for the extent of their lives, to find peace in nature.
I’ve heard countless people talk about how they’re going to live minimally in a hut in the middle of the woods. I, too, have had this “dream” of sorts. Keyword, “had”.
I’ve lived in Beijing, a remarkable city full of history, culture, and general human activity. But growing up, the nature which surrounded me always seemed to be groomed in a distasteful way for me. I loved parks sure, but it wasn’t the vast expanses of land that contained all but human activity.
Moving to New Hampshire for school changed most of that, although our mountains may seem like tiny little dimples compared to the giants of the Rockys or a 14,000ft behemoth residing in Washington state, we still have our fair share of natural surroundings.
I go outside a lot more in NH, I have various favorite trails which I frequent. Hiking on trails has developed into a sort of mental treatment for excess stress. Of course, along the way, I picked up photography, which turned my outdoor adventures into a de-stressing machine.
My mindset for dealing with… anything, really, is that you never know how good a sunny day feels if you’ve never felt what a rainy day feels like. I never knew my true potential, and how happy I could be if I only lifted my head away from the work and split my own attention into the lanes that actually define who I am and the success I garner, of course, now that my mindset has changed towards this I feel I have succeeded in being quite a happy man.
Nature helped me recognize who I am, and what I am because nature has always been natural. It is the root of who we are, I mean truly, without it who are we to become? The separation between artificial buildings, machinery, and general jiggery-pokery and the wild, survival instincts of nature is huge, and it is bound to whoever views it. When I walk on the trails, is when I recognize that I am 6000-something miles away from “Home”, is when I realize who I truly am, I am not a machine, I am a person. Nature has helped me, taught me, to be who I am.
Ironically, the same trees and pristine waters which I walk by, have convinced me that a hut in the woods is not what I look for. What I truly strive for, dream for, is to be able to learn, recognize and repent. I shouldn’t, and no longer, dream for the material, but more for the spiritual.
