The Trip On Delaware Water Gap

While reading different essays addressing the topic of nature, I came to the conclusion that they all shared the idea that being outside can make an impact in everyone no matter if you believe you only belong in a city or forest because it can bring you serenity and show you all the amazing things you wouldn't be able to see anywhere else. In Wendell Berry’s essay “An Entrance to the Woods,” he states that people can use the quiet of the woods to forget all their problems. Berry wrote “One is that, though I am here in body, my mind and my nerves too are not yet altogether here. We seem to grant to our high-speed roads and our airlines the rather thoughtless assumption that people can change places as rapidly as their bodies can be transported.” Nature has a way to transport ones mind and spirit elsewhere while the body is left behind on earth as we travel deep into thought. Adding on to that idea, the essay “A City Person Encountering Nature” by Maxine Hong Kingston the author explains that nature is a giver of peace and patience with its slow cycles that may frustrate people, but help keep a sane mind. Society is fast paced, making everyone feel that they need to keep the same pace in order to get things done, but we don't realize that although our bodies are moving and pushing, our minds are exhausted and cannot keep up with the fast pace. Kingston wrote “Preferring the city myself, I can better discern natural phenomena when books point them out; I also need to verify

The outdoors provide tremendous ways to do something that I’d never thought of doing. For example, hiking, in my viewpoint, I have never, personally, thought about hiking before. Then I came to the conclusion that it was one of the most astonishing activities to do. Hiking can be the experience to see the outside world and to discover new possibilities just by trekking up a little path

The evolution of children’s participation in the outdoors has changed drastically. This generation’s parents and grandparents grew up in a time where the woods and open fields were the only playground they had. Believe it or not, nature plays a very crucial role in people’s lives, emotionally. But this is becoming a problem because people are straying from nature. Things like Nature Deficit Disorder started popping up when people realized that nature wasn’t just an extra component of life, but a crucial one. Nature plays a big role in peoples stress releif and happiness. I will also give examples of ways for families and children to get outdoors feel safe. People who spend a lot of time in the outdoors experience and share the positive affects of it. Although, some of the factors keeping people the the outdoors are the social issues that teach children and parents that nature isn’t safe.

To be so free and so adventurous that all the planning one puts into a venture is throwing a some tea and bread in an old sack and jumping over the back fence and simply going is a feat of human spirit in itself. This was the type of person John Muir, author of A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf and renowned environmentalist, was. He lived to be in nature-- to explore and learn everything she had to offer him, and his passion is evident in all his writings. Throughout his travels and adventures, he diligently wrote his experiences down and later published them in various forms to spread awareness and document his findings, including some pictures he took. Muir was a person who was so truly fascinated and overwhelmed by the pure beauty of nature

In turn, this allows the visitors to experience the natural beauty, charm, and spiritual significance of the “true world” in almost the exact same light as even the earliest of environmental philosophers, such as Henry David Thoreau. Being exposed and actually walking through these lands allows people to go beyond their desktop screensaver aesthetic admiration for the natural world and really connect to and feel in their own individual way the majestic powers of the wild. One example, among many, of these powers would be the opportunity for extreme solitude, time for personal reflection, and an outlet for escape. The benefits of such introspection could entail an increased sense of vitality, self reliance, confidence and moral strength. “New Englander Joseph Knowles proposed setting aside ‘wild lands’ and establishing outdoor communities where Americans could retreat from the ‘commercialism and the mad desire to make money that have blotted out everything else leaving us not living, but merely existing.”’ There are no advertisements trying to persuade one to buy this, or upgrade to this new form of “must have” technology in the wilderness. There is no boss or professor demanding work or assignments, there is just pure bliss. When people get out and really smell the pollutant free fresh

Once I went to the Sierra Gorda which is an incredibly large reserve with a lot of biodiversity, with my parent’s friends. It was summer, between the last days of June and the first ones of July. I remember entering to a place called Rio Escanela, and think that I was madly in love with the place and its beautiful variety of birds and plants. I had so much fun in that place, everything was green, fresh, with very few human traces. It was nature at its best. I was admiring the impressive nature and thinking about how much destructive can humanity be. The day after, we went to Jalpan, a pictoresque little town in the middle of the Sierra. We ran into very kind and gentle people, and of course, delicious gorditas. We walked around for a few hours.

On the first day my nature experience, I walked up to my nature spot, sat down, and just wept. I hadn’t felt particularly emotional in the moments leading up to this experience, but as soon as I was engulfed in the presence of the redwood trees I couldn’t stop the floodgates from opening. It felt as if I was being held in the bosom of Mother Earth, completely secure and protected, and I immediately interpreted this spontaneous release of emotion as a very good omen. There is something so beautifully cathartic in weeping, and as I sat on the benches, listening to the nearby birdsongs, the falling of the leaves, and the whistling of the wind, I just let it out. I just let out all the sadness, all of the dread, and all of the anxiety I feel towards being a human. As I wept, my inner voice kept repeating, “in a sea of futility, showing up is sometimes the only action necessary”. I don’t know where this “thought” was coming from, but it was incredibly reassuring, nonetheless.

Long distance hiking not only helps you physically, but an also help you grow mentally. Many suggest hiking as a therapeutic experience. On long distance hikes, the hiker distances themselves from the trivialities of modern day society and funnels all their attention on only themselves and the trail. This dissociation from life allows the hiker to forget any anxieties they had before the start of their journey. Hiking connects you with nature, appreciating it in its entirety. Hikers takes themselves out of their daily lives and join many others with a similar goal, entering into an accepting community of fellow hikers. Hiking can also boost creativity, as it disconnects one from technology and modern conveniences. They instead must rely on the items in their pack and what they can find in nature. Long distance hiking is considered a form of therapy evoking feelings of creativity, disconnection from civilization, and community.

Spending time in nature is incredible. You get to see many animals you otherwise wouldn’t get a chance to see in your day to day life; elk, skunks, and coyotes are some that you may see and hear. Nature is so relaxing. Just listening to the melodic songs of the birds as they greet the day as the sun rises over the horizon takes away all stress and puts me in such a calm and peaceful mood. When I go camping with my family, I am typically the first one up. As the others continue to sleep I walk down to the shore of the lake and listen to the crickets, birds and the occasional bloop of water as a fish comes up to feed on insects. The sun is just peaking over the horizon and the way the light shines off the lake and trees surrounding, makes it feel so surreal yet oddly calming at the same time.

When you go into the wild, that is precisely what you will get: the wild, with all its startling and now and again disagreeable circumstances. Adapting to a troublesome open air enterprise can be a test notwithstanding for an accomplished mountain climber, so in the event that you are simply beginning to see what nature is about, please consider deliberately our recommendation.

Have you dared to base-jump off of the high precipices of Kilimanjaro? Some individuals have, and there life has been bettered because of it. You don’t have to go to those extremes to obtain the benefits of the intense outdoor enthusiasts. Even simple activities such as taking a walk outside or gardening can have many positive outcomes. Even though in today’s hectic society there isn’t much time to participate in outdoor activities, it is extremely important because it provides cognitive benefits along with improving your mood while also strengthening your body and instilling an affinity for nature.

The immediate outcomes of contacts with nearby nature include enjoyment, relaxation, and lowered stress levels. In addition, the research results indicate that physical well-being is affected by such contacts. People with access to nearby natural settings have been found to be healthier than other individuals. The long-term indirect impacts also include increased levels of satisfaction with one’s home, one’s job, and with life in general. (Qtd in Kahn, 15)

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better” was an outlook I found within my research for this trip (Einstein). Family trips are always an interesting experience and sometimes hard to understand. Between the arguing and stress of packing, my family finds a way to get on the road quite often. However, the next trip planned arose a new level of anxiety. Until this trip, I have never traveled to a place far from society and slept within the pure darkness of the night. The adrenaline rush of hunting to find a safe space for shelter, hanging a bear bag, and climbing the cliffs of Red River Gorge was an experience I did not expect; however, my father, brother, two other family friends, and I conquered this expedition

We all know that a short, rainy winter day is less pleasant than a warm sunny June day. Most of us are cheered at the return of spring, and we mostly have certain pleasant or striking memories we associate with each season.    My awareness of nature was at this relatively normal level until high school. I recall as an 8th grade student, that nature was wholly unappealing to me. I liked sports, music, comic books, stamp collecting, and whatnot. Trees were trees, grass was grass, flowers were flowers and weeds were weeds. But by the time I was in 10th grade, and especially 11th grade, I had been affected profoundly by nature awareness. I went from a normal worldview to one wherein the value of being aware of and appreciative of nature was a centerpiece. In retrospect, this was the pivotal transformation of my life.    In high school I went from just another one of the guys into a person whose passion and livelihood became nature. The process was begun, I think, by my having read Thoreau's Walden. I did this because I was exhorted to do so by an influential 8th grade teacher, George Hofbauer. Walden affected me, as I was at that ripe, receptive, impressionable age. In turn I read other authors: Emerson, Goethe, Voltaire, Carlyle, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Schopenhauer, Pascal, Montaigne,

Where to go when Nature is everywhere? The choices are plentiful enough that it is difficult to make a choice; instead, I decided to take a drive up north without a clear destination, and stop here or there at my own leisure. This opportunity was apt to practice two of my favorite things in the world, wanderlust and photography, and, at the same time, ponder about Nature and Solitude.