Local: A Search for Nearby Nature and Wildness

"Definitely. Trying to fit in adventure or wildness or nature, or just fresh air—whichever of those appeals to you to—round the margins of our busy days is really important. It’s nice, of course, to think, ‘This year, I’m going to work two days a week, and I’m going to spend the rest of the week wandering the hills’ or ‘I’m going to take a month off and discover myself in the mountains.’ But the reality is that 99.9% of us are busy with life and that’s not going to go away. So what can we squeeze in around the edges? I’ve been dabbling with this for a few years now. So for the last three years, I’ve been scheduling a monthly tree climb into my calendar for the first Wednesday of each month. I just climb a tree near to where I live. It’s 20 minutes of a tiny bit of exercise, a bit of fresh air, a bit of just ‘oh! Sit in a tree for a few minutes.’ And then whoosh back to the Zoom calls again. Trying to schedule it and make it a regular commitment is a really important aspect of this, I think. I could have just said, ‘I’m going wander around my map for a year. That’ll be interesting.’ But by forcing myself to go out regularly, once a week, for the whole year, not only did I see all the seasons, it was really helpful from a mental health perspective — and the physical health side of things too. I felt like I ought to suggest Walden but, in the end, I didn’t. I decided to focus on books about slowing down, paying attention, the power of curiosity, enthusiasm and repeated practice. Then, as my last book, I’ve got one that’s more specifically about getting out to explore locally."