“Escape to nature”.
Every time I go somewhere where wilderness is at its peak, I do not feel like I escaped – it rather seems to me as if I came where I belonged, where I had to be.
My favourite times of year are those warm, bright days, when the air is filled with floral scent or a dash of salt, when days are long and nights are nothing but a glimpse of time that connects us with a new sunrise.
I am not fond of the cold because I am not well accustomed to it. Even thinking about staying out in the cold for long makes me shiver. But to come here, I could not resist. It was one cold Saturday in January. With as many layers of clothes as I could put on to still be able to button up my jacket, I embarked on this trip.
Instead of escaping to nature, it felt like returning to it.
Cold was inevitable, but the walk quickly brought warmth to our cheeks.
The air was crisp, but there was no wind.
The old forest was covered in white. The snow was fresh, dry and sand-like. It took all needless sounds to itself and left us with nothing more than silent tranquility.
It is beautiful how an ordinary event such as precipitation can completely transform the world.
Being there in the heart of the woods, sensing pure air against the skin, listening to the sound of our footsteps, reminded me how right it felt to be somewhere out there, in nature.
It is too easy to forget that feeling once you go back to your town, your neighborhood, schools and offices, shopping malls, and coffee bars. It is too easy to accept that we are, in fact, not a part of this nature.
But once in a while, when nature calls us, when we spend some time apart of our everyday life – “escape” from it – and when we give nature a chance to show us just a tiny fragment of its riches, we can recall that peace.
Nature is always a part of us, as we are a part of it. We just have to remember.