I want to be Outside.

Posted by: intrek38

I want to be Outside. - 11/02/13 10:07 AM

This was written by a woman who just finished hiking the PCT and I figured it deserved a place here.


Oh, want, want, want… I don’t want money. I want shelter, food and water.
I don’t want diamonds. I want winking stars and moonlight.
I don’t want a bouquet of cut long-stem roses. I want wildflowers growing along the edge of a path, leading me somewhere. Anywhere.
I don’t want the biggest, latest plasma tv. I want a series of vistas that I work hard to see and stories of what I encountered to get there.
I don’t want a big, cushy recliner. I want the perfect rock to lean against, a divet in the dirt that fits my butt just right and maybe an old decaying log to prop my feet up on.
I don’t want make-up and perfume. I want dirt under my fingernails and the scent of pine, sage and an occasional patch of wild blueberries swirling around me.
I don’t want expensive, aged wine. I want to dip an overly-used bottle into a crisply cold mountain stream or trickling spring.
I don’t want cars and the hum of city life. I want crickets, birds, frogs, wind in the leaves, footsteps on the earth and the silence of the forest.
I don’t want schedules. I want simple. I want what’s there. What’s always been there. It’s simple and it’s all natural. It’s reliable. It’s peaceful, private, and personal. It’s a place to melt every sense I have into one giant organic orb of being. To just be.
I want to be outside. I miss it… I miss being outside. Every day. All day. Moving, seeing, experiencing, struggling, loving, feeling, being as alive as I can feel in the most naturally comfortable way possible.
I don’t want to sleep indoors ever again. I want to feel a bite from the cold air on my face after I peek outside from the warmth of my sleeping bag. Every single day. I want to wake in the darkness of early morning, stars still twinkling above. I want to walk, silently and carefully as the natural light slowly brings my path into view. I want to watch the sky wake up with me in pastel colors and diminishing shadows. I want light breezes to carry me along when I feel tired. I want the flowers to smile at me and the mountains to invite me in. I want to climb into their mysteriousness – to immerse myself in their beautiful secrets. I want to surround myself with the air of desolate nature.
Every single day, I want to wake up outside.


Written by Robin Grapa, aka "Toots Magoots"
Posted by: jimmyb

Re: I want to be Outside. - 11/02/13 11:10 PM

smile Sounds a bit like what Heaven might be like if there is such a place. Frolicking though eternity would be OK with me.

jimmmyb
Posted by: Glenn Roberts

Re: I want to be Outside. - 11/03/13 08:25 PM

Absolutely beautiful. I haven't read anything that captures the essence of backpacking better since Colin Fletcher. (And that's not bad company for any hiker.)
Posted by: ETSU Pride

Re: I want to be Outside. - 11/04/13 08:38 AM

I like it. smile
Posted by: OregonMouse

Re: I want to be Outside. - 11/04/13 09:46 PM

Love it!

The one proviso is that my nice heated house, with lots of things to do during the 15-16 hours of darkness, is very tempting during the winter! For the rest of the year, though, that essay fits me perfectly!
Posted by: jimmyb

Re: I want to be Outside. - 11/04/13 10:40 PM

Yes winter...
well in a perfect world that would find me waking up in the Caribbean and other such wonderfully warm places.
Posted by: billstephenson

Re: I want to be Outside. - 11/05/13 12:59 PM

Yeah, that pretty much nails it.

Thanks for sharing.