Day 54

       I'm writing tonight from a B&B in Tofino. It's been since childhood that I've last been to this neck of the island, and I do wish I came more often. The nature is wonderful, the air refreshing, and the elements truly awe inspiring. 
      Sunday's upcoming entry (day 56) will hopefully be another photo gallery, as I've already managed to capture several wonderful shots in the short few hours that I've been here thus far. 

      I imagine it is an experience common to all of us, that after a day out in the wilderness, whether it be at the beach or on a hike, the night's sleep that follows is always particularly deep and satisfying. Perhaps the reason for this is not the physical exertion involved in the day, but the sheer quantity of input the senses receive. The wind is constantly changing, the temperature rising and dipping down, the sun waxing and waning, the trees rustling and the waves crashing up against stone and sand. 

     Compare this with the comfort of our packaged lives. The comfort we pursue in our homes, offices, clothes, and perhaps even relationships, is a comfort derived from constancy; from a practice of systematizing time and energy, meals and bathroom breaks, affections and outrages. Even spontaneity is rigidly planned, if we take an honest look at it. We believe a certain temperature is optimal, that a certain fabric is most fitting, that certain feelings for certain people are undeniable merely in virtue of circumstance. 

      Nature is, if nothing else, an exercise in extremes. Sunny days fade way to nights that strike fear too deeply for anyone's comfort. Often the most beautiful creatures and events in nature are the most deadly. Two resilient creatures survive, thrive, and procreate in environments so opposed that if the critters were ever to switch places neither would survive more than a few moments. 
      The only constant in nature is its absolute contempt for the status quo.

     So the day with nature ends, and as we go to bed we don't so much feel groggy and in need of some shut-eye, but we feel merely that it is time for sleep. After a day like this, it is hard to deny the intuition that this kind of world is the world that the body and mind were made for. Perhaps as we try so dearly to adapt the environment to ourselves, we lose our identity. 

Comments

Anonymous said…
Another constant in nature: indifference.
7:32 PM
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