A Friendly Reminder To Get Outside

On Sunday, a woman won a pair of shoes retailing at $1000. Maybe she didn’t win them on Sunday, but I heard about it then. She was walking with her friends, and as they passed me, she announced her recent victory. I found it amusing, not only because winning shoes on the radio is a novel concept in an internet-driven age, but because they were hiking. I was hiking. We were hiking. And she was talking about a $1000 pair of shoes she won on the radio. Her friends weren’t as amused as I was, and there was good reason for this. They were preoccupied capturing evidence of this wholesome Sunday hike. Content to be sent out to the world, paid back in cultural capital.

Existing in an internet-driven age was the exact cause of my hike. I have spent too much time on screens lately, and an equally inappropriate amount of time sitting with a project assigned to my weekends. So last week I was advised by my boss to take a weekend off and hike. Alone. And I did. Which is why we are here, in a newsletter discussing nature therapy. Nature therapy is an ostensibly simple concept. It’s the act of being in nature. You don’t have to walk. You don’t have to sit. You don’t have to run. But you do have to pay attention.