Hi, that's Anna. I would like to share with you something quite personal.
I've never really felt connected with nature, even though as scout I spent a lot of time in forests and mountains. I liked it, but it was far from what today I understand as connection. When I grew up a bit I realized there are a lot of environmental and ecological problems, but they never really spoke to my heart. Till we started to travel 3 years ago. I remember the awakening moment in Mantanani, Malesia, a wonderful island covered with rubbish. Or the unforgettable experience of sleeping for two weeks in a tent in the Thai jungle... I started to feel nature, not only think about it. The big change, though, happened here, in South America, where nature is just mesmerizing, it's much above anything I've ever imagined. For the first time in my life I really feel CONNECTED. And yet, my old schemes are still working.
Since a while I feel super tired and listless. I'm not sure where it comes from, maybe I just exaggerated with the amount of things I try to do at the same time or maybe last weeks of traveling were all in all quite stressful. We spread with Andrea few days ago and I struggle to keep going with all the things I'm supposed to do. Today I decided to take a break and go to visit something. People at the school I'm volunteering for suggested me to go to a cute village 1h away. Ok, I thought, I should do it. So I took a bus to the next village, where I would change for another bus. Which didn't come. I started to walk toward my destination and after few minutes I found myself outside the village, surrounded by mountains and forests. I couldn't stop my tears. How could I forget? It's not the next village, no matter how cute, that I need. It's nature, just nature. I took a deep breath.
It's not that long ago when I understood that nature and us is One. There is no environment and people. We are nature. When we destroy the environment, we destroy ourselves. I don't think I will be ever able to come back and live in a city. Since I can feel this strong connection with nature, cities seems to me more like cages, in which we isolate and distract ourselves from what really matters.
Thank you trees, birds, sun, rain, dog, mountains for making my day today.