Sunday, August 8, 2010

Nature...The Best Medicine


Friends know that I have struggled over the last 4+ years with a mysterious and frustrating back/hip problem. At times it can be quite disabling, and it's dramatically reduced my activity level compared to where I was at 5 years ago. But over the past year, and especially the past 6 months or so, I've learned to better manage it in a way that allows me to do a lot more things that I enjoy. I'm grateful to able to hike and camp so much lately with few serious issues.

However, sometimes it still catches up with me, and the past week was one of those times. On Tuesday morning I pushed it just a *little* too far in the weight room, and knew so immediately. Workout over. Walk home. Take drugs. Ice on back. Accept that much of the next few days will be spent on the floor. Over the years I've learned to manage these episodes when they happen, and though one never really gets used to it, never really wants to accept it, in time we learn to deal. The physical pain becomes an inconvenience, an annoyance mitigated by copious psychological warfare. The mental part though is tough. Exhausting, excruciating really.


I've figured out that for a couple days, there's not much I can do. Ice, stretching, walking, very light exercise. Things improve daily, for a few days. Then the improvement plateaus. The cost of inactivity meets the benefit, and at this point it's time to switch strategies. Time to exercise. By Saturday I'd reached this point, and got excited, because it was just in time for Sunday, my designated outdoor adventure day, and a little dose of the best medicine on the planet!

Any escape from the LA smog has to be good for you

I hit the trail in some nearby mountains. The wilderness code requires that I conceal the identity of these mountains, since along the way I happened across an amazing, apparently rather unknown and unused campground...and I have every intention of keeping it that way! (I've sprinkled in a few photos, however, that the astute reader might use as clues). Almost immediately upon hitting the trail I felt improvement. My legs were glad for the work, my back started to loosen, and most importantly my spirits rose. Watching a hawk fly overhead, squawking and chasing mice. Listening to the breeze through the canyons. Smelling the fresh scent of the trees. Dodging P.O. and rattlesnakes, and feeling smugly superior to the dumbasses powerwalking up the trail with their iPods. Once again, a memo to the mountain lion community...

Easy prey. Eat them.

All of this served to refresh my mind, bring a smile to my face, and allow me to feel alive, engaged, human again. The spiritual fulfillment I find in nature, expressed in its many forms, is the closest thing I've ever found to religion in my life. It is my church. My sanctuary. Both my escape from and most profound engagement in this world. What else can I say? I love it.

Mountains & Pines

After a 9.8mi/2670' roundtrip, I was ready to head home to a crock pot that had been stewing all day, and now I believe it's time to eat... aloha!

Yum

2 comments:

  1. Awesome. Simply awesome. Keep up the great photos and hiking cause I'm seriously enjoying them. If it heals your back at the same time, score.

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  2. good shit dude!!!!!

    (on many levels. I hear you)

    ReplyDelete