I am enjoying my Yellowstone trip with the grandkids, but it's not a true wilderness adventure. My hiking trip in the Sierras, with my son, was closer to that, and I discovered on that trip that Bob Dylan was right.
True, there were those emails. And my sore feet were a distraction. Still, much of the human world did, ultimately, detach. And then ... It was just like in that Bob Dylan song:
True, there were those emails. And my sore feet were a distraction. Still, much of the human world did, ultimately, detach. And then ... It was just like in that Bob Dylan song:
Time Passes Slowly
Time passes slowly up here in the mountains
We sit beside bridges and walk beside fountains
Catch the wild fishes that float through the stream
Time passes slowly when you’re lost in a dream
Once I had a sweetheart, she was fine and good-lookin’
We sat in her kitchen while her mama was cookin’
Stared out the window to the stars high above
Time passes slowly when you’re searchin’ for love
Ain’t no reason to go in a wagon to town
Ain’t no reason to go to the fair
Ain’t no reason to go up, ain’t no reason to go down
Ain’t no reason to go anywhere
Time passes slowly up here in the daylight
We stare straight ahead and try so hard to stay right
Like the red rose of summer that blooms in the day
Time passes slowly and fades away
What we do, or think we have done (and we ourselves) shall fade. In some moments in the mountains, I was not afraid.
Gary A. Patton
Back in the days when I used to hike or ride on horseback into Wilderness on a regular basis, I found it took me two or three days to let loose of the trappings of civilization, if that's what it is, and join in the flow of the natural world.
ReplyDeleteSleeping under the stars, getting up with the sun and rolling into my sleeping bag when it got dark, I was soon deep in the ancient rhythms.
After a week, I was Home.
After two weeks, memories of any other way of living faded away.
When I had been out alone for two weeks or more, I found myself completely disoriented when I returned to the human world. Everything was too fast. I couldn't safely drive a car. TeeVee was incomprehensible. Everything was too loud, too brash, too speedy... too unreal. I had to go out in brief forays from home, and return quickly to recover.
After a week or so, I was back in the swing of things, able to cope, but still puzzled as to why.