Just back from a recent Portland trip to see my sweet family. Portland is a “wild” city; beautiful haphazard landscapes pour onto the sidewalks, flower stalks from faded blooms are left to reveal their own unique prettiness, plums have baked to prunes on the sidewalks, squirrels scold and scurry and the towering trees form bowers over the streets with leaves gracefully falling everywhere. Even with all the undisciplined plantings and mature trees it’s still a city and so I was craving some pictures or stories about remote wild places. I wandered into the local iconic big box store known affectionately as Freddie’s, found the magazine isle: Fashion, Science, Tech, Home & Garden, and jackpot – Outdoors. These are the headlines that greeted me: Conquer the Outdoors, Battle the Wilds, Survive, Tackle, Bag, Defeat, Combat, Fear, and Win.
Whoa!
Apparently the woods are to be feared and the people who read these publications need to be experts at man-i-pulating the wilds before they venture into them so they feel less scared. Hmm, I’m not here to judge how others experience the wilds. I suppose I’m just stunned.
I walked into the wilds to find the awe, to relax, to commune, to renew, to discover. In the past few months I have been on 39 SOLO camping excursions, me a woman over 50! Although most put me a little out of my comfort zone I took the challenge as an opportunity of self-discovery to stay open to the natural wild world around me, to appreciate it, not fear it, not judge it, and just feel it. The only thing I conquered was making a quality piece of fry pan toast.
I know publications that celebrate the wonderment of the wilds exist I just wish they were the mainstream norm. When President Lyndon Johnson signed the Wilderness Act into Law it was reverence, respect and wonderment that he and the co-authors based their land preservation act decision on; the act reads in Section 2(c) “the wilds…has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation…”.
Although I haven’t been camping in Wilderness I have been finding “Wildness” and I have been changed by it. I’m finishing up the season with mountains of love and appreciation for the Wild and Natural places on our planet (even more than before!). I believe when an experience in the wilds is awe-inspiring it opens us to love, care and respect these places. Florence Williams in her fantastic book Nature Fix put it like this; “Isn’t it possible that it’s only when you open all the doors – literally and figuratively – that the real magic happens?” I got all my doors wide open, nothing to tackle or battle, just stay present and witness the magic.
And… Should Bigfoot pop by, I’d smile, wave, signal at Peace Out and leave her alone!
Wild Escape Guides 