-Henry David Thoreau, "Walking"

I love Nature partly because she is not man, but a retreat from him.

Solitude in Nature

Nature

is a source of clarity through solitude.

Personal Reflection Mailynn Nguyen To me, spending time in nature is a way to get away from the stress of school, work, and all the rest. I run in the woods behind the YMCA nearly every day. During my runs, I am completely -physically and mentally-- on my own, and I enjoy the quiet that comes with that solitude.

During the past cross country season, a couple of my teammates and I tried to describe to each other what we think about when we run, but no one could give a solid answer. My running thoughts are everywhere and nowhere all at once. What I can recall most about my running mind is that I pass from memory to memory based on things that I see in a very roundabout way. One of the hills I often use for hill repeats always reminds me of how my brother and I used to “sled” down on the leaves after making the steep hike up in our too-hardy-for-Virginia snow pants from Wisconsin, and one tree root reminds me of the time I tripped while running with some teammates over the summer… thus I move from thought to thought. Recalling these sorts of memories helps me take my mind off all the different things I’m working on at the moment, allowing me to find the clarity I need to continue with business after my run. My belief about nature providing relief from stressors is reflected in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote two pages after this one: nature truly does allow a temporary escape from the “sorrows” of the world, in part by allowing the mind to wander between memories. At my great-grandmother’s wake this past September, one of my mother’s 15 cousins --the who owns the property that used to be Great Gramma and Papa Froelich’s farm-- told the story of a seemingly-healthy oak tree near the Froelich ravine that unexpectedly fell on the day Great Gramma passed. After the funeral the next day, we all went to see the tree, pictured on the next page. In that situation, it was nature that gave the family a release from the sorrow of losing Great Gramma. Our release came through nature’s powerful reminder of many fond memories on the old Froelich farm. The fallen oak and the memories that came with it granted each of us a bit of solitude-- not physical solitude, since we were all there together, but solitude in our thoughts about Great Gramma and the family and the land she shaped for so long. In so many ways, nature is a release from the pressures of life and the sorrows that can come with it. The solitude that comes with spending time in nature helps me reset mentally as I run, and it helped the Froelich family remember Great Gramma for the wonderful memories she helped create. Henry David Thoreau observed in the quote on the cover that nature is a “retreat” from people; likewise, Walt Whitman describes in his “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” how refreshed nature makes him feel amidst the dryness and stress that comes with human interactions. Nature is a retreat from the pressures that we put on ourselves and the pressures others put on us; it is a retreat that allows us to redirect negative energy and become energized for whatever comes next.

The O ak

Tree

This i s the o ak tha passe t fell t d. Vie he da w ing it the fa y my g at the mily m reat g farm t embe randm h e d r s solit other ay of t an esc u he fun de in ape fr t eral g om th heir m ave e sorr e m o ries o ow of f her, the oc casion .

"In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man,

in spite of real sorrows." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer When I heard the learn’d astronomer,

Walt Whitman

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

Connection to Modern Culture In Primates by Jim Ottaviani and Maris Wicks, all three featured primatologists (Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas) are groundbreaking in their field because, according to Ottaviani and Wicks, they spent years on the ground observing primates in their natural habitats. Their studies were conducted mostly solo in very remote locations, a practice which Ottaviani and Wicks praise for their scientific breakthroughs gained through quiet observation. Primates is an example of a modern novel that helps readers appreciate the value of being alone in nature.

Mailynn Nguyen Mrs. Siegmund

Jan. 17, 2021

All photos except the cited book cover are my own.