an excerpt

In all its complexity, places that make us feel well help us to get closer to our origin, our base.

I still have not found that specific place that I can say has defined who I am today because what defines me is a conglomerate collection of every place I’ve been to, every person that has touched my life. However, Mr. Momday was keen to emphasize the importance of the word “landscape.” Therefore, the closet landscape that come to, as Mr. Momaday described “indispensable to [my] well being,” would have to be whenever I’m in the wilderness. In the wilderness, I feel a deep sense of solitude, and the opportunity to create a relationship with my roots is given to me once more. It’s difficult for me to describe the transcendental feelings that I get once I’m immersed into this environment, but I’ll try. To simply put it: I feel at home. In detail it would be something like this: A feeling of wholeness and somehow knowing that it’s where my soul and being feels most comfortable. A sensation of complete safeness under the blanket of indigo, navy sky with the starlight coordinates of Greek Gods and Goddesses towering over me in every which way. The moon with all of its radiating light, casts a warm glow on my body. The solid ground underneath my planted feet stabilizes and supports me. The Willows, Sequoias, or Red Woods (my favorites), guard me from any fears; they are posts that protect me from harm. The distant sound of the flowing river, with the occasional “plop!” sound that’s made from the peeking fish below, soothes me into sleep. In the morning, the raging, red sun showers its rays over me and greets me the most tremendous hello, and that feeling of “I am who I am” rings true to me more than ever.

The Wilderness brings me back to a place that allows me to feel the most honest and uncensored feelings. Just thinking about the Wilderness provides me with some peace. I trust the wilderness with my thoughts and I enjoy confiding into the old mountains because they don’t judge me, The wilderness helps me to rediscover myself time and time again, and in so many ways it defines me because a huge a part of my well-being depends on it.