Sample chapter from Nature Escape
Sometimes we need to escape. From something, someone, or somewhere. In our bid to loosen our shackles and lighten the load, we begin to be free. Unburdened and unbothered, we find our way to a better place. There, blissfully liberated from our problems, is where we hope live. Away from the nonsense. Far from the noise. In the quiet places that are special to us. We live.
Sometimes we don’t need to escape at all. Everything in our lives might be perfect and cherished. Happy where we are right now, we blissfully savour the joys of a contented life. It’s then that we might seek a treat or two: something extra-special that provides the icing on the large, fulfilling, sticky bun of our lives.
The more we have, the more we crave? We’re adaptable beings, us humans, very quickly finding our ‘norm’ at whatever level it is. There’s always the potential for something more, something extra, something indulgent, something wonderful. And that, for me, is where nature can’t be beaten. I’m a countryman, a naturalist, a gardener and woodsman. My soul seeks to be outdoors. Never comfortable indoors (except in the depths of winter or during prolonged downpours), I’m always looking for opportunities to get ‘out there’ amongst real, honest, wild life.
Leaves, feathers, fur, scales; rocks, soil, water; day and night; the cycle of life; spring, summer, autumn, winter; field, meadow, hedgerow; coastland, moorland, heathland; mountain, hill, cave and crag; valley, river and lake; woodland, dunescape, moorland; these things and places are my natural home and organic outdoor family. I am of them and they of me. Along the green roads and beyond, they are my travelling companions. This world, this life, can be as vast and magnificent as a mountaintop panorama or winter sunrise, or as tiny and ‘delicately beautiful’ as an insect’s eye. Both have splendour, both encourage long and curious gazes, they ask us to explore and reflect, to learn more about them and build every closer bonds. Such is the intimacy and value of lifelong friendship. I know them, and they know me. We’re there, together, through thick and thin, from beginning to end, to the day we drift, flutter or fall to the ground, and everything begins all over. A circle of life and appreciation that swaddles us with its climbing or rooting tendrils. All together, all natural things, of this earth. We are as one, so why the need to escape?
Sometimes we drift too far from the natural path and find ourselves off-course, lost or at an imminently dead end. We seek to turn back, retracing our footsteps to find the familiar and comforting. How far do we travel, back to the wild? It depends on the distance we need between one area of our life and the next. This distance can be real (ever ‘gone travelling’ to see and discover things?) or virtual (it’s possible to ‘escape’ into a good book, for example). This book seeks to achieve the latter. It provides an opportunity for you to indulge a quiet moment. You may sit with it on your lap and be transported to an early summer woodland in Britain. There, in your mind’s eye, you can sit back against the smooth trunk of a beech tree and hear a gentle breeze rustling through its leaves; wood pigeons are cooing, buzzards mewing and circling overhead – glimpsed through the gaps in the canopy above; honeysuckle and elder blossom perfume the air; a shrew squeaks in the undergrowth – doing its best to sound like a baby skylark – and you sit there motionless, not daring to make a sound. The calmer and quieter you are, the more you become part of their world. And then you close your eyes so to hear more, you breathe deeply to smell more, and you place your hands on the earth beneath you to connect to this wonderful, life-giving place. You are of the woods, immersed in the fullness of life, totally and heart-meltingly free.
This is your nature escape. It’s nobody else’s. This moment of freedom away from the humdrum connects you to that which brings you to life. It’s a natural life, a real life, of your making. There, free from the expectations of others, you can be the true you – the one who whispers to you through intuition. You know this to be right. You’re there, in the place of freedom, being the person you want to be.
Wild abandonment? Perhaps. It’s our primeval calling. Nature is as much within us as around us. None more so than when we delve deeply into mature woodland, to explore, forage and consume.
There’s beauty and soul in the life of a wood. Be there, to ‘be’ there.