Nature Hunger
“One learns that the world, though made, is yet being made; that this is still the morning of creation; that mountains long conceived are now being born, channels traced for coming rivers, basins hollowed for lakes...” John Muir
Whether visitors or dwellers in Western North Carolina, our collective tug is that desire to experience and connect with nature. We want to hear the “drink-your-tea” sound of the Eastern towhee; see the shadows and sunrises over the mountain peaks and in the valleys below; breath in pristine air; and, feel the exhilarating chill of rivers and waterfalls.
Personally, I am bathed in awe whenever I step onto beaches and ponder at the expanse of oceans. But it is heights for which I am most fashioned. While a beach walk brings humility as to the vastness of the space and the smallness of humanity, to stand at the base of or the crest of a mountain both minimizes and exalts existence. The Appalachian mountains have a good chunk of my heart, but a recent trip to the Grand Tetons resulted in a nature hunger I did not realize nagged – until the commercial plane descended into Jackson Hole with the whole Teton range in view out my passenger window.
The range’s “majesty,” as cliché as it may sound, astounded, fascinated – beckoned. I wanted more. And I got it in the form of a five-day, 20-mile Teton wilderness horseback, mule-pack trip to a natural location unadulterated by humans. In fact, the guides, who were essentially modern-day cowboys and a cowgirl, noted that few humans had experienced or seen the tranquil, tall-grass meadows, chiseled, solid-rock formations, thousand-year-old lava rock fields, and concealed, aqua-blue glacier lakes.
Perhaps natural Edenesque scenes stir innate places in all of us. Certainly, it was this yearning – to view nature at its purest – that undergirded the likes of Lewis, Clark, and Bartram. Landscapes connected and still connect Native peoples, and philanthropists gambled millions to ensure nature’s protection via the national parks.
May we never lose our wonder of all that is natural – or become completely satiated with creation that lives to thrill and inspire.