{We recently returned from a five-day camping trip in Big Bend Ranch State Park and Big Bend National Forest. I wrote this one morning sitting at our picnic table at the base of the Madera Canyon mountain range.}
There is a simplicity and complexity I find in nature. How can I capture the scenes unfurling before my eyes? How can I take home remnants of the mountains and the grandeur?
Capture. Take – verbs of possession that are in line with most of my day-to-day mindset. Capture time, money, opportunities, resume builders. Take rest, advice, moments.
None of that applies in the expanse of the wilderness.
Here, nature cannot be captured or taken. Even photographing the image belies the wholeness of the scene. I might give you a snapshot – a moment frozen in time in a single frame – but what you can’t see is what lies outside the frame and what transpires seconds after my shutter flashes.
Here, nature imparts. It gives without asking for much in return. Mostly respect.
Listen to the thunder, acknowledge it and adjust the length of your hike accordingly. Differentiate between a passing mountain rain and a deluge, and respect both. Look at the clouds and the direction the wind is blowing. Know what rain looks like in the distance. Breathe me in. Hear the river lolling over rocks and reeds. Watch the sun disappear over mountain ranges. Feel yourself getting smaller and smaller. Let the bats mesmerize you to sleep. Nod to the ant carrying a flower. Store into the files of your mind the sprawling mountains stacked against one another until they are shadows on the horizon.
Here, the capture-and-take mentality of my other world has to fade by choice of will. I have only one job here: survive. And that’s boiled down to a few daily tasks: eat and sleep. Nothing else really matters.
“In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.” – John Muir
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