A perfect article. To savor more of the same, the book by Richard Powers, The Overstory. winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
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The pictures in this article are so so nice. A+++
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A wonderful accounting of the author's trip to find ferns, peace and rejuvenation...I'll wait till I manage to make my trips to Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne and various wine regions of Italy and Spain.
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I loved this piece and thank you for writing it! Nature is something that you can absorb everyday, even in this great city of ours. When you can't find time for the open wild spaces, look up at the sky, the clouds, Sun, Moon; they are all there for us to focus on. Breath, and under those city smells is good air. Just a thought to get us all through it until the next big nature walk.
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I also have found great healing in nature. I live by the hope that we humans can and will shift to protecting and nurturing wild spaces as the most important challenge before us.
Related to this, we should SPEAK out and STOP the planned satellite launches NY Times reported on recently. Currently around 5,000 are in orbit. FCC has already approved for SpaceX to launch another 12,000 to blanket the planet with 5G internet. Inescapably awesome internet everywhere. What will the impact be on biorhythms? Astronomers say we won't be able to see the same night sky. We also have not found a way to clean up unwanted "space junk" in the atmosphere. Where was the impact assessment? Public discussion? International consensus on how many satellites one company should have and the process for approving them? The FCC process needs serious public attention and revision.
Bottom line: I want to be able to show my grandkids the stars. I want to be able to find an internet-free spot on the planet or at least know one exists. The time to act on this and so many issues is NOW, before it is too late.
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I walk Arthur R Marshall Loxahatchee Fish and Wildlife in Boynton Beach FL to look at the ferns and epiphysites. My blood pressure lowers. I see shapes and colors. I listen to the birds. I smell the decay and the growth. Light reflects off the swamp. Did I say that I live in West Boynton and my swamp, the Everglades, our swamp needs your help?
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The tropics are lovely, lush beyond belief, but then so is the relatively tame countryside in rural Pennsylvania, the other side of the Water Gap (sublime in and of itself).
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There are no native pythons in the Neotropics.
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@Doris Must be a boa.
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Nature, in all of her forms, is a necessity. That we must seek her says everything we need to know about our modern world. But, yes, by all means seek her in anyway you can. Even if simply to look up at the sky, and watch a cloud drift by.
Years ago, a friend and I were walking along the sidewalk in a city, and there was a street tree encircled with a chain link fence. Presumably this was to protect the tree during nearby construction.
She said, "Poor tree; it's in a cage."
"The tree isn't in the cage, we are," I replied.
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Hopefully, the author will return home and figure out how to cultivate a few of the ferns he loves. And then learn how to accept that as enough.
Our society is drowning in an insatiable need for more. We have exported that need to societies around the world. Now the natural world, the non human world, is paying an obscene price for our insatiable needs.
Joy, happiness, fulfillment come from inside. No amount of possessions, money or experiences will satiate.
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@Maureen Steffek And how about the impact of flying wherever and whenever we want - as therapy. Much of our contemporary up-scale depression and anxiety may well be the planet trying to wake us up.
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When my kids were young, I introduced them to the concept of "little fun" versus "big fun". Little Fun included things that satiate the need for immediate gratification in relatively meaningless ways such as playing video games, fooling around on a phone or other things that offered no value beyond the ephemeral rush of good feeling. Big Fun was doing an activity with friends, working on a hobby, going on vacation...things that offered both immediate and longer-term fulfillment and joy, and made for wonderful memories. The choice: fill up all the spaces in life with Little Fun, or, take care of schoolwork, job work, chores or other necessities in an efficient manner and then spend a larger chunk of time and attention on things with greater overall and long-term value.
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Americans have become a culture of Little Fun. Gratification has to be immediate and easy. Marketers love us for it. But there is no separation between work and play if every moment is a mix of work and Little Fun and there becomes no space in our lives for Big Fun. The author describes the rejuvenation that comes when one makes time for Big Fun.
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The world and our lives provide ample opportunity for Big Fun. It does not have to be a trip to somewhere exotic. It can be an outing or get together with friends and family somewhere local, so it is not limited to those who have money.
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A lot of money I can spend on travel would do a ton to cure my urban malaise.
1
Great Read. I live in vancouver and moved here 15 years ago for precisely this. Access to temperate rainforest outside my front door, ocean and mountain hikes and a culture of spending time outdoors which makes it not crazy to skip a morning of work to get outside. The Japanese actually prescribe walks in the trees for anxiety. Works like a charm.
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Thank you for this lovely moment of zen.
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excellent photography.
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Loved this piece. Agree that exercise in nature is very good for my mind. Now I need to leave my phone off when I do it. Thank you.
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I found this article both soothing and enticing. Usually I have no desire to travel but the forest in Oaxaca is a place I would like to visit. Thank you, Ms. Tchou.
11
We simply refuse to accept that we must stop consuming - anything, everything - that appeals to our ego-balm whim of the moment. We just don't get it. We just don't want to get it, because it means we cannot continue to consume whatever we want, and whatever we can afford, to consume.
It's nice that the author has (belatedly?) "discovered" Nature and found it to be Good. However, for Goddess' sake, flying from to NYC to Oaxaca to look at endangered plants in endangered cloud forests that are endangered from climate change caused by our endless addiction to burning Fossil Fuels, including ego travel, is beyond ludicrous.
We are in deep doo-doo, peeps. And our beloved progeny will be in deeper doo-doo if we don't change our greedy ways - Now! Please!
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@Miss Anne Thrope
Trying something new does it. Risk-reward. Try two hours, maybe take off the watch, leave the phone in the house. We used to have schedules where we said no to distraction. Easy to loose oneself right here, create the beauty, be the artist right here. We are all artists if we open up. Right here does not obviate the need for something exotic such as a cloud forest adventure, but each environment has its own potential. Local is cheap and does not go away. Read anything by Sacks and try it.
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@Miss Anne Thrope
"Ego travel" I don't think so. This beautiful article will enhance the good in this world more than your screed. I certainly enjoyed the pictures and my own nature memories and being reminded of the positive power of nature's beauty. Unless the author took a private plane, her flights would have still taken place even if she stayed home. Articles like these bring us closer to our humanity, something that needs to happen if we ever hope to solve the big, global issues.
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@Miss Anne Thrope
You do understand, of course, that "not consuming" means billions are thrown into abject poverty, right?
So easy to just plop out "stop consuming" in a completely thoughtless manner. As if.
So difficult to confront the world the way it is. In its myriad complexity and inter-dependencies. You can call it "greed", but it's also livelihood and subsistence. None of it is good for the planet, but we have no alternative. People gotta eat, gotta have shelter, gotta have basis services. and the vast majority of human activity is towards this end. And it is highly destructive. 7.7 billion people all needing to survive in a highly competitive arena. Solve THAT problem.
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