nature

This picture appeals to my sense of calm. In long hair and deep in the Amazon, I am staring at a world-class waterfall that just happened to be nearby. We threw baited hooks on strings into the river below, and within minutes caught a couple of 10 pounders. 30 meters away lies an unspoiled golden-sand beach. No footprints, bird prints or animal prints of any kind.

I like looking at this picture. It says: content and relaxed. And let’s not forget buffed, the best shape of my life. A man needs a picture of himself in rough nature.

I retired from a hectic, arduous business life at an early age.Traded my Mercedes for a backpack and traveled the world for several years. It’s not like I was frivolous; I probably put in enough work for two lifetimes. I left a little flabby with a hidden exhaustion and a mind ready to be revitalized. Starting in Africa I could feel my body getting stronger and lighter, felt fat melting off my bones. My spirit soaked up sleep that twenty-five years of hard work had denied. Old hurts vanished. The pain in my neck, back spasms, cracking knees—all gone.

Before traveling I was subject to walls, plumbing, comfortable couches, cars, manicured lawns, hot tubs, and air conditioned buildings designed for work, play and family. Not that I minded. I loved work and family. Sometimes I felt like a package…. wrapped on the outside as Denis Hickey, husband and father. Inside I had submerged personalities, like the one staring at this waterfall.

Nature doesn’t get all wrapped up in right or wrong, good or bad. It doesn’t care about all that. It moves on and on like this waterfall. There is cruelty along with beauty in nature to be sure, that’s what makes it so interesting and exciting.  As time went by I experienced energy in nature. Such that in Thailand I felt like a bubble that had power to float close to danger and bounce off at will.

When I arrived home and moved back into my big house, surrounded by trees and a mini forest, I could hear sounds: birds, squirrels, crickets, the comfort of wind… I talked to horses. Three months later that sense was gone. Too bad!! I live again inside my unit satisfied with a balance between money, time and freedom. Content in the knowledge that once in a while I need to escape into nature to recapture that sense of calm in the man staring at a waterfall in the Amazon.