When you pull your car over to the side of the road at sunset in the Badlands and bison wander past you, slowly and at ease, and one maybe stops to look you in the eye with those large brown soulful eyes before returning to munching on grass, it’s not hard to imagine what it must’ve been like in that exact spot hundreds of years ago, when everything was simply made of the natural world and man inside of it.
There’s something timeless about the experience of being in these untouched places—because the natural world is timeless. You can be in any time there. You become timeless, too.
And after hours spent in the silence and grace and majestic beauty of these dramatic rock faces and mountains, tall grass, bison, and bighorn sheep, you acclimate to it, to this way of being in the world.
It’s only when you re-enter civilization—and suddenly see fences, electricity, manicured lawns, then gas stations and signs for an interstate—that you realize how quickly and effortlessly—how naturally—you acclimated to the natural world. Because you are it. You are this abundance and great beauty. As civilization begins its hand at severing it, awe and wonder are replaced by mind, checklists, left turns, right turns, destination.
We live indoor lives so divorced from the natural world, we rarely get to experience the Earth as it naturally is, something as pure as wilderness. No wonder it’s so easy to forget who we are and where we came from and who we are inside of it. But it’s always available for reconnecting.
Preserve the wilderness inside you. It’s a sacred place. You are your own sacred place. That reserve is not lost. It’s only a matter of effectively tapping in to “your nature.”
✦ I had been fantasizing about roasted vegetables for weeks. Butternut squash soup. Steamed greens. Really, any vegetables that don’t come from a can (I’ve found it very difficult to stay gluten-free/dairy-free, especially up in the Dakotas, and I’ve eaten way too many cans of soup and homemade trail mix). Finally, yesterday, I got food from a hot food bar and literally took one of every vegetable available. It was heaven.
✦ The Black Hills reminded me of the Ithaca/Finger Lakes region crossed with rust belt towns.
✦ Overheard in South Dakota: “I use that when I eat wild duck.” “So they have buffalo hot dogs or regular.”
✦ The whole West claims jackalope. I’ve seen it on state souvenirs from Southern Arizona up to Montana and through the Dakotas. (I guess anyone can claim an animal that doesn’t exist.)
✦ Even in the middle of Nebraska, you have to pay a fee to launch a canoe. Why? For what?
✦ Nebraska is home of Arbor Day.
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