Nurtured by Nature
I’ve lived a wild and crazy life and most everyone out there knows me as a club guy, real estate mongrel, deal guy or solo superdad. And that’s just fine. What many don’t know is that I’m really a nature lover at heart foremost and observing an ant hill in action is as fulfilling as making any deal. Without carving time to be out in nature to recharge at the insane pace at which I lived and live, I would have never survived.
Favorite communes have included northern Michigan, Big Bend National Park, the Rockies, and especially the Canadian Rockies, the Cascades with an emphasis on Mount Rainier, Patagonia, and most all National Parks in the USA and abroad. At that, a creek 10 minutes from my house or even the backyard can be a medicinal respite.
The sights and smells of nature invigorate. As do for me the smell of a well-worn yellowing book. Not an e-book, audible or podcast of course. Actually reading a physical book penned by favorite authors really opened my eyes and imagination to understand and better tune in Nature.
Cracking open an old book, written by a spirit that reveled in the raw earth brings great satisfaction. It does even more so when reading it out in nature itself, sometimes in the same spot or similar locales that inspired the writer.
For starters on the menu of course, Thoreau and his epic Walden are must read top-tier prose. Harmonizing in nature that he needed for sanity and living his incredible experiment is enviable. His resounding theme of simplicity really hits home, especially in this world gone mad.
Edward Abbey delights in his raw and beautiful accounts of his aloneness sans loneliness in the desert. His communion with the Utah desert confirms its vibrance and effect on the senses - brings it alive. His concept of the ability to do nothing captivates.
John Muir stands out as a demigod in his church of nature. His brilliance and his yearning for the liberation of recharging the mind and body and nature is unparalleled. Kudos to him, probably the greatest steward of nature in the history of the cosmos.
Zane Gray, like me, escaped a life of drudgery in a occupation he didn’t thoroughly enjoy to live of life of adventure in the outdoors that is rarely ever matched.
Even Einstein, who most people do not know of as a great philosopher, or lover of nature – of which he was both - was quoted as saying, “Look deep into nature and you will understand everything better.” He also espoused “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Being born and raised in suburban Detroit and spending 35 years of my life in Dallas, Texas with the aforementioned, desperately needed and varied escapes, as I moved towards parenting at age 50, wanted to get away from the city and find a place that was closer to outdoor options. I toyed with the idea of places in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Telluride and other haunts in Colorado, Hawaii and even Costa Rica and San Miguel de Allende Mexico. Actually, got close on a few of those.
One winter, I contacted some friends looking for a new place to ski as I had pretty much done every place in the western United States – which resulted in a stay at my friend Steve’s home to ski The volcano in Bend Oregon. Wow was that great! Returning for the spring to mountain bike there, got in love with the place and finally bought a second home there. That was going to be the new me.
Recalling Steve’s advice – “Jeff you don’t have to live in the big city so why do it? Live closer to where you love.” It was time to follow Steve and John Muir – The mountains had called me. That was back in 2003 when the place just seemed like the perfect porridge. Not too hot not to cold. Perfecto. Had everything that you could possibly want without the crowds, the craziness or the attitude of other possible destinations. It reminded me of my Deep Ellum days as far as it’s perfect porridge timing, where there was a window when everything was so cool, so fun, and people were so genuine before things get discovered and nearly overrun. It happens to every place. Inevitable.
After a number of years I moved permanently to Bend, missing all my friends and privileges in Dallas, but willing to give that up to have nature at my back door. I’ll never regret that move even with the pain of missing so many folks and fave spots in a city I held so dear.
Things have changed a bit here in Bend now, where we see bumper stickers that saying, “Bend sucks. Don’t move here”, the same bumper stickers I saw in Whitefish, Montana last summer. I get it. Also, lots of bitching on social media about the new vibe. I guess it’s like everything else, love it or leave it. A trip to the big city and a return reminds one that even paradise on steroids aint that bad after experiencing 6 lane 24/7 bumper to bumper traffic elsewhere. Nothing’s perfect forever, but you can never want to trade back down from being close to nature.
I have especially enjoyed teaching my kids to enjoy the outdoors and the simplicity in the natural world. Looking at flowers up close, insects, the bark of trees, mosses, lichens and more. The smells of many of the plants and even the soil – this has really been marvelous therapy for our little family of three. Letting our imaginations go wild like Einstein, we see faces, shapes and forms in the clouds, the rocks and the mountains that are striking.
When they were very young it was me pointing out the lion head imagined in a rock formation or cloud formations that looked like running horses. Now they are the ones remarking – “Look at that tree limb looks like a witch on a broom or look at that bush – resembles a goat”.
What a gift to share and what a legacy! Go outside and getcha some! And please share this with your friends and all preorder my bible at JEFFSWANEY.COM Thank you!