Walking in a wood

What a pleasure is a walk in the woods!

You don't really remember how revitalizing it is until you find yourself overwhelmed by city life. Anxiety and panic attacks, stressing out about nothing and everything, cycling through trafficky roads breathing the fumes of a million exhausts...watching out for cars and bicycles and pedestrians coming out from every corner, ears filled with the noise of the construction sites and mopeds and people yelling. Then somehow life, one day, by coincidence leads you into a piece of green land, and surprise catches you unawares.

You step into this cloud of greenness and the air cleaned by the trees breathes inside your lungs and feels like "what? Is this what air is supposed to feel like?". Then the sounds of the boughs shaken by gusts of wind, the chirping of forgotten birds, and the little twigs breaking under your trekking shoe soles make you aware of a different dimension of life. A dimension where there is ease in living, where your eyes are relaxed and your ears unviolated. It all feels like you never felt this way before and yet, you probably have felt this way, before you decided that cities were where fulfillment is found. (Obviously I am not considering here the many dangers of a life in the wild, simply a visit to the wild.)

I live in a big cosmopolitan city, thriving, full of life, diverse cultures, art, music, fun, and opportunities to find or lose your way in this world. I love it, but I think that a big factor in my staying there, other than the fact that it is the place of the highest potential for the achievement of my specific dreams, is also the presence of so many beautiful gardens and parks, some of which are surprisingly big and bushy, which give me leafy respite when I am fed up with fumes and concrete and people rushing (including me).

A city without parks is just a mistake. I feel that a park or a garden, in general, a green area, is the place you go to remind yourself of your primal and original humanity and your sanity, a break from the relentlessness of concrete and industry and commerce and cars and buildings and people and stress. Your attention is ripped from every direction in a big city, by every possible contender, people, errands, jobs, apps, appointments, and obligations… and then it finds a break under the shade of a tree, along the leaves of a hedge, over the softness of a meadow in front of a small cluster of tall trees.

I recently spent a few weeks away, I went to meet my girlfriend’s family where they live and then we went to see my family, where they live, so they could all be introduced to each other. It all went very smoothly (almost all, but nothing related to the point of this musing) and we all had a good time. One of the best things about the trip was that we spent a lot of time in areas with a consistent presence of nature and clean air. Woods, rivers, a lake, mountains, the snow at night, breathtaking views and sunsets, and long walks to enjoy them all. I remember once, after a long drive, we arrived at this place at night, we stepped out of the car and I was hit and delighted by the freshness and the clean smell of the air and the abundance of stars in the night sky. For a moment I thought I wanted to give up everything and just move to a place like that, to live like a human animal should.

Or should it?

Maybe cities are toxic environments for our bodies and minds, maybe we should not idealize city life and its opportunities and openness so much, or perhaps we should...anyway, it wouldn't hurt to simply place more green spaces and better-looking buildings in and around them, walk a lot, drive more bikes and electric cars, use public transport consistently, and every now and then go and forest bathe in some area of overwhelming greenery and natural beauty. I love the life that this city is giving me but sometimes it drives me nuts and all I crave, in some of those mad moments, is a long slow walk in the woods.