Mother Nature (or in other words, God's creation!) is amazing, incredible, awe-inspiring, beauteous, and filled with delights not found in city scapes.
So, I often wonder WHY am I so apprehensive and and reluctant to head into the great outdoors - particularly the wooded regions?
Finally, at age 75, I figured it out.
Because, for a lot of the month of July, we have BEEN in the great outdoors. I have so appreciated its beauty - from the desert of Bryce Canyon to the forests of Island Park.
But, one day recently, as I was navigating a path - slowly - I realized WHY I hesitate whenever someone says, let's go camping in the woods! WHY it's not so fun for moi, but others love it.
1. BALANCE - mine is terrible and always has been. I trip, stumble, fall often. I've had some very serious falls in my lifetime, and it's NOT PRETTY or fun. I just don't have a good sense of balance, so walking along a forest trail with rocks, overgrown limbs, rises in the terrain, etc. just makes me so fearful of falling. I look down at every step, which brings me to the 2nd reason the outdoors throws me for a loop:
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| It's hard to even fathom, but I fell totally on my back as I tried to navigate my way off this dock. You can't see it, but there's a little incline and a big pile of rocks to the left. I missed the incline and fell flat on my back on that pile of jagged rocks. Ir was SO LIKE ME TO DO THAT. And, so awful! Miles was there and he freaked out and I was so embarrassed. |
2. SLOW - I'm so slow because of what I said above; I look down every step of the way. It's painstakingly slow going when you look at EVERY SINGLE STEP. Calder asked me to go to the dock with him and he was off like a gazelle. Slowly, I followed the trail down to the dock, but I was so slow. He could have walked there and back several times before I showed up! Once I went hiking with my sisters-in-law in Zion, and I was embarrassingly slow as they seemed to glide over and bounce over the rock formations. It's hard to always be the last, like I was at girls' camp, both as a youth and leader.
3. MOSQUITOES - they ADORE me. In China, every morning, I would wake up to numerous bites, even tho I slept with my head under the sheets. Allen would have none. We were right there together and I was eaten alive; he came out scot free. THEY LITERALLY LOVE ME, and I don't like it, but as soon as it reaches about 6:00, here they come, in a beeline towards MOI! Oh sure, I've heard of mosquito repellent, and use it, but if I miss a TEENY space down by my ankles, or a little speck on the neck, or the back of an ear, they find it and feast on me. (If only Noah hadn't let them into the ark!)
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| The night we watched this amazing sight on the River, there were more mosquitoes than China's entire population. And, they ALL headed my way as soon as I opened the car door. This was such a marvelous thing to experience, but, ALAS, I had to stay in the car. |
I appreciate the beauties of nature for sure.
It's especially great to share it with family.
But, does it HAVE TO BE OUTDOORS?
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