{"id":671,"date":"2011-07-20T22:19:56","date_gmt":"2011-07-21T02:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.katrinakenison.com\/?p=671"},"modified":"2011-07-20T22:19:56","modified_gmt":"2011-07-21T02:19:56","slug":"wilderness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wilderness\/","title":{"rendered":"Wilderness"},"content":{"rendered":"

For years my friend Maude has been saying that we should go to her little cabin in Maine. Somehow, although we talk about it every summer, we\u2019ve never actually managed to set aside the time to make the trip. Leaving home means finding someone to water the garden, tidying up the desk, answering the emails, making sure that kids and husbands and dogs and all other commitments are covered. Easier to murmur, \u201csomeday, maybe,\u201d and put the adventure off for another year.<\/p>\n

\"wilderness<\/a>I\u2019m so glad that this time, when she asked, I just said yes. It\u2019s a five-hour drive door to door, a journey from civilization into remote wildnerness \u2013 dirt roads, moose, rugged mountains, vast lakes. Maude warned me that we\u2019d be roughing it — no plumbing, no phone service, no internet, no \u201camenities.\u201d But nothing could have prepared me for what we got instead of an indoor toilet and wi-fi: the wild beauty, the stillness, the sensuous pleasure of a wood-fired sauna, skinny dipping under the stars, drinking hot tea in bed together late at night, sharing stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody needs beauty as well as bread,\u201d naturalist John Muir wrote, \u201cplaces to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.\u201d I am just back from the woods, still assimilating the memories of this sacred, rugged place. But already, I find myself yearning to return. A taste of wilderness has whet my appetite for beauty as well as bread. Stripped down to bare essentials \u2013 food, fire, water, air \u2013 I experienced what it means to simply be a receiver. Open, unbounded, receptive to all kinds of knowing and seeing. Leaving conveniences and distractions behind, it is easy to rediscover what is of real value: our own vulnerable, wild souls and our membership in the vast web of life. The timeless dance of sunlight and shadow, earth and sky, water and mountain. The cries of loons, the gift of friendship, the pleasure of a hammock strung between trees, simple food, good conversation, a sound sleep in a bed at water\u2019s edge.<\/p>\n

Home again, I find myself cranky and out of sorts, feeling hemmed in, burdened by the \u201cstuff\u201d of my life. I wonder if I can find a way, even here in the midst of busyness, to stay in touch the silence inside? How disciplined would I have to be to reduce the distractions in my life, to begin to honor and protect my connection with my own hungry spirit?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years my friend Maude has been saying that we should go to her little cabin in Maine. Somehow, although we talk about it every summer, we\u2019ve never actually managed to set aside the time to make the trip. Leaving home means finding someone to water the garden, tidying up the desk, answering the emails, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,29,46,14],"tags":[244,376,471],"class_list":{"0":"post-671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-connection","8":"category-friendship","9":"category-simplicity","10":"category-soul-work","11":"tag-john-muir","12":"tag-simplicity-2","13":"tag-wilderness","14":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/600x600.png?fit=600%2C600","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}