Nature is My Best Teacher

I am typing this blog as I wrap up my hiking trip at the Acadia National Park in Maine.

Last year, I studied abroad and traveled extensively. This year,  life has been more mundane, off-track, and stressful.

From job searching and soul searching my true passions, to graduating and redefining my goals and dreams, I have been overwhelmed by all the possibilities in life. My head is stuffed with many voices; mine or others. As 2017 comes to a close, I need a break!

Hiking is one of my favorite activities. Being completely in nature reminds me that I am human, a person, a state of being, or a form of existence we often forget. Going on a hike makes me appreciate things I always overlook in daily life like a sunset or a little caterpillar slowly making its way home. As I connect with nature and communicate with trees through simply breathing, inhaling its natural fragrance and exhaling every feeling inside my body, I clear my thoughts and find my inner voice. When I am with a group of good pals, we grow much closer as we share our stories and give each other a hand on the journey with the same destination.

While at the Acadia National Park, we hiked along the cliff, with a beautiful view of the ocean on one hand and the woods on the other. Going forward, I felt drenched basking in the beauty of nature. At each turn, the curvy trail offers me a different vista. Going back on the same trail, my excitement was slipping from me as I knew I was returning to the daily grind.

However, something magical was slowly emerging as I walked back on the same path I’d trodden.

I was surprised by how different and beautiful the view appeared to me.  

I stopped at one point and took a simple minute to breathe and face the ocean. The blade-cold wind brushed my face as the tide washed through the rocks underneath my feet. Again, a completely different sensation. My senses have been perceptibly altered by nature.

That moment hit me as I relate it back to life. Perhaps you can call it, an epiphany.

As we walk through the trail called life, the views will appear different to us when we look at the future, the past, and the present.

Each experience is shaped and altered slightly as when we move forward, and when we look back at how far we’ve come, and where we have arrived.  

By the end of a trail, we learn something new and gain a new perspective. And I realized that the problem for me is that I always fixed my eyes on the long-term goals—what’s ahead of me—and forgot to stop for a minute to look back, and to live in the present.

While I am walking down the trail of life, my surrounding is constantly changing and what is held true at one point will not be the same once I arrive my destination, whatever my goal might have been.     

2017 has been rough for me, as I feel the pain and stress walking through different circumstances. Yet, I know these are growing pains and good for my personal growth. Just like Yin and Yang, there are two sides (at least) to everything. It is also a year I’ve learned to fully experience and embrace pain – a year of self-discovery and development.

Reflecting on 2017  at Acadia National Park, I never feel more ready for 2018. 

This blog was originally published in December 2017 on One in a Billion.