We’ve been doing a lot of hiking the last few months. (Well…some people call it hiking. I call it “walking with a view.”) It’s safe, it’s inexpensive, and I guess it’s good for us or something.
The thing I’ve enjoyed most about it is being surrounded by all the shades of green and signs of life. Real life – not digital sounds and images. The insects are a predictable pain in the neck (literally), but that’s pretty much the only minor annoyance.
There are no traffic sounds here...no drones of suburban lawn equipment, no hum of dishwasher or clothes dryer or ceiling fan. Just the birds chirping and the branches swooshing in the occasional breeze.
Even in the shadows of the woods, the greens are incredibly vibrant. Leaves and plants all have their own hues, and the moss spreading across the limestone is a spectacularly bright kind of green.
A lot of the real world is getting me down lately. Politics, public health, economic crisis…it’s all around, and it's all-consuming. And it’s real. We have to deal with those things.
But this? It’s a different kind of real. It’s lush and natural and hopeful. I think I'd like to just stay in the woods as often as I can and channel my inner Thoreau for a while.
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