Wanderless

When the word freedom comes to mind, I never think of my "unalienable rights"... I think of silence. Liberty from the noise and the constant pointless chatter and debauchery of modernized life. I long to get away to a secluded, untouched quiet.

There are very few places that will be able to give me what I seek save for nature. She can give me everything. I don't need a cell phone to post every peak and vista, every flower or mossy oak, every moment of mind to experience, and clicks and likes add nothing but a superficial social gratification from strangers. Everything online is impersonal, even the personal.

I seek solace in the trees, in through the canyons around my hometown, traversing gorges and ravines, climbing for goodness' sake. How many weekend warriors out there move more than to and from their cars to sit at their desk job? Social media paints a distorted figure; seems like almost everyone has an edited selfie of them atop mighty peaks, standing on top of the world. The reality is, people are hardly standing at all.

Crisp highland air is what I seek, soft grass, soft breeze, and warm sunlight hitting my back. A long meandering trail and my life on my back, spending my days stress free, with the only ambition in sight over the next hill. I have little support for such a life, however; I do not have savings, I don't have a trust fund. I have a wife and a dog, both of whom would not fare well in such life. But this is my dream, I always say to myself. When I gaze through the window of my labor station I see vistas so close I could touch them in a matter of a few minutes' stroll, but if I do I'll lose my house.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.– Aristotle

Adventure is with us all, though some may choose, or not choose, to tap into their own personal fantasy. That journey is my calling. That journey is my answer to the numbness that I feel to my loved ones. I don't want to shudder when I wake up every morning, dreading the day. So here I'm going to document my experience hitting the trails, bushwhacking in the wild. Camping off grid. I"m a beginner, and I don't live anyplace special. I'm a desert rat in Tucson, Arizona.

Many people I know are as even more frozen than I am, enthralled by their devices and their profile pages, how many likes their stories had gotten that evening. I'm not trying to sound archaic, and anti-innovative, but these objects are tools like any other invention. Yet a tool is a horrible master, and we tend to let ourselves get lost in the pixels and the pings, delving deeper and deeper in to the personally catered algorithms.

What I desire is an entirely different kind of wandering; one with my own mind intact, my own thoughts, wonders, aspirations, and senses in control over what I decide to do. I have only ever experienced this feeling, a euphoric, utopian freedom immersed in nature.

That is a start. I'll document what I feel, what I smell, taste, see, the exceptional moments, and the not so special moments. I hope some people find this relatable; I know I do, sometimes looking within a person's life, and not a demigod on Instagram with an unattainable lifestyle is just what a person needs to get out the door and live. I hope I can at least do that to someone. I want people to realize that there is something to be found with simplicity, the simple everyday wonder and marvels we take for granted. They are all around us. We do not need an all expenses paid trip to Angkor Wat or Mt. Everest to be amazed. Go down to the creek and watch the animals drink, and fall leaves floating through the wind and water. If you're a desert dweller like me, seek out the canyons and gorges, and stare and the exposed rock formations, vibrant with color, as old as time. Get lost with the forest, and look through to the treetops at a starlit sky. Find your nowhere.