I am most content in Nature, be it mountains or fields; in these places, I have a sense of connection, of suchness that eludes me in trappings of concrete and steel. When I can spend even brief moments in the bounty of the earth, I am reborn, refreshed, and deeply content.

I recently stumbled across the writings of Wendell Berry, a man of “suchness.” I think this quote from his essay “A Native Hill” captures the essence of the lightness and depth one feels amidst Nature’s verdant realms.

“And so I go to the woods. As I go in under the trees, dependably, almost at once, and by nothing I do, things fall into place. I enter an order that does not exist outside, in the human spaces. I feel my life take its place among the lives-the trees, the annual plants, the animals and birds, the living of all these, and the dead-that go and have gone to make the life of the earth.
“I am less important than I thought; the human race is less important than I thought. I rejoice in that. My mind loses its urgings, senses its nature, and is free.”
~Wendell Berry, A Native Hill