At 10 years old I was 200 ft in the air climbing a pine tree with my winter jacket and my strappy sandals on in the fall of 2005, I guess it wasn't quite a winter jacket, but my only jacket at the time. I remember seeing the glory of fall colors at the top looking across my parent's 7 acre farm in southwestern Ontario, completely surrounded by thick woods with breaks in the trees as the fields. The wind and sunlight flowed through the trees, like a glimmering lake of gold, red, orange and yellow shimmering. The pine tree I climbed that afternoon bending gently against the breeze. The sky bright blue, and the sound of thousands of oak, maple, and birch leaves flickering and flashing in the sunlight, the sound alone etched in my memory forever. I don't have strong feelings about any heavenly figure, but that was as close as I've been to seeing and feeling something larger than myself for the first time.
I remember that view so vividly from my childhood and how it made me feel. Free beyond measure. Pure. Inherently a part of the balance of nature as I literally clung in the balance of her arms as my small hands dug into the bark, sticky and dirty from climbing the pine. It wasn't beyond me at that young age that one wrong move would likely end my very short life. But as a child you don't quite feel the weight of that the same way that we do as adults. I was lucky nothing happened, it was almost a blessing that I continue to carry with me when I begin to feel the urge to connect again to the Earth like that. Not that you have to climb trees to get that feeling but the image carried with me throughout my whole life, being one of my 'happy places' to go when life begins to challenge you.
It was shortly after leaving that farm that I moved to the city of Toronto, where I began to meet people who had never gone on hikes, gone camping, or had even spent time outside of the city in their entire lives. I wondered what their 'happy place' was and I even felt a great surge of empathy towards them for never having experienced what joy and inner calm that being completely surrounded by nature could do for you. It's not just an experience where you reap the benefits just in the present moment. It creates an imprint on you that stays with you long-term.
Even in my 30s in the present day, I often find that I get this 'scratch' every few months to plan something completely centered around being outside. Whether that's heading to the Toronto Island, grabbing a friend to go hiking with in the GTA, or planning a much bigger adventure is something that I always need in the calendar as something to look forward to, a reprieve in today's world of always needing to be somewhere, be someone, or actively doing something.
Nature doesn't judge any of that. It takes you as you are, wherever you're at in that relationship. It will always be waiting for you to come back and pick up where you left off. It doesn't judge what you know or don't know about it, it's just there for you when you're ready. You don't need to be an expert or have a wild experience the first time you head out, sometimes it's as easy as going somewhere new and asking yourself - what do I need from nature? Peace? A release? Something new? Connection? A challenge?
Let this year be the year you jump in with both feet, let us help you do that.
