Periodically, I Get Lost in the Wilderness
It Works Wonders for My Mental Health
I found myself daydreaming this morning. While sipping ginger tea my mind went to a favorite place, a six-hour drive north of my abode.
In 2020, as COVID was making its unwelcome appearance, I drove to the Upper Peninsula to purchase a beautiful plot of land. It’s near the Canadian border, covered with trees, and serenely beautiful. During particularly stressful times when modern life feels apocalyptic and humans don’t seem to have learned a thing from history, just thinking about my land up north makes me feel better.
Sometimes, however, I sorely need to sneak away and surround myself with lots of trees and very few people.
I disappear to a place where Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and Lake Huron surround me. Twenty percent of the entireworld’s freshwater is located in the Great Lakes system. Amazing.
That’s where my plot of raw land is located.
Modern life has successfully separated us from nature. I’m convinced that humans are now living an unnatural life. We need to get our hands in the soil. We benefit from shared experiences with other living creatures.
We feel freer with less stuff.
But instead, we struggle to fill our homes with junk and immerse ourselves in clutter. Be it cluttered environments or cluttered minds, we have lost our way. Even I forget what it’s like not to hear the sound of vehicles from my bed. The blessing of quietness interrupted by songbirds is almost a lost human experience.
We are noisy creatures who tear everything up that’s in our paths.
For modern humans, life is about conquering, competing, and grabbing what we want. We no longer differentiate between necessities and luxuries, and we are rarely satisfied.
We were convinced by our culture to chase after the American Dream.
Working and slaving our entire lives to fill our homes with junk is not a sign of success. Most Americans live in debt which makes them little more than indentured servants.
Wanting less is key to a life of fewer problems.
Seriously, minimalism is indeed the road to freedom. Are we all simply unaware of how dissatisfied modern humans are with life? We think the guys with the big cars and flashy homes are living the good life. That’s what we’ve been told.
But they’re no happier than me and in many cases less happy, I dare say.
When I get lost in the wilderness, my mind becomes uncluttered. I’m suddenly able to sort things out. I think less and feel more. I experience each moment rather than wait for something better. I don’t find myself postponing until tomorrow what is available to me today. I don’t know if I’m doing a good job of explaining myself.
Maybe there’s a reader out there who can relate to the sentiments I’m struggling to share.
Later this morning my sis called. She was upset. The sight of a 72 year old grandma running errands shouldn’t get a scary reaction from a stranger. But this morning she dared to put her mask on before going into the store. As she got out of the car a gross-looking guy (they’re always gross-looking) called out to her with a sneer on his ugly face,
“You need to take your fucking mask off. We’re in power now.”
Once she shared her story with me, my pleasant daydream came to an abrupt end. I was thrust back into the reality of modern life, a world where everything has been politicized and people (men) are ready to burn it all to the ground.
I need to escape to the north much sooner than anticipated.
All I can add is this. If you have a place to slip away to where there are fewer humans and more trees, do it. As often as possible, do it. It will soon become your preferred therapy. Something in all of us recognizes nature in the raw, and suddenly, we no longer feel like the center of the universe. We feel connected, instead, to something bigger than us.
I need that feeling more than ever.
Teresa is an author and professional myth buster. You can find her books on Amazon.
