I’m not proud to admit that “outdoorsy” isn’t something I would call myself, but I don’t think I should feel ashamed of it, either. The truth is, I find nature can be somewhat overwhelming. Beautiful, but overwhelming in the power imbalance I feel when it surrounds me. I understand the humble place of humanity in the universe and I know that I’m no match for Mother Nature.
A few times a year, though, if I can, I make my way into the woods for a few days. Or rather, to a cabin in the woods, because my “spent-my-life-in-cities” self feels the need for a closed and locked door before I go to sleep. This week’s blog post, I started with pencil to paper in a SEPAQ cabin, the blue of the lake visible through the green of the forest, in one of Québec’s national parks. My time there, in just a few words:
No signal, lots of trees.
No signal — The news that I check once a day? No. Music, which I listen to almost all day on most days? None of that. Social media to find out what’s happening in the city and the world, or what people are up to? Not for a few days. Instead: the gentle clap of paddles moving through the water on the lake during the day, the campfire crackling as the sky turns dark at night.
Lots of trees — I haven’t tied myself to one in protest (yet) and I may not hug them, but I often take the branch of a tree in my hand and just hold it there for a few seconds. It’s something that I first did in the hormonal tizzy of pregnancy in my twenties — turning to the trees for strength — and have found myself doing ever since.
What I noticed most, without a signal, among the trees, this past week? As ridiculous or as simple as it may sound, it was my place in time and space … the prolonged minutes and hours and what filled them (as much as what didn’t) … the infinite and subtle movements around me. Within 24 hours, I felt as though I’d been there for a week, that’s how restorative it was. After a few days, I was ready to go home … bringing what I had absorbed with me … until the next time I take my “spent-my-life-in-cities” self into the woods.
a few words ... from Montréal 