When I picked August as a month for my hiking challenge, I knew it was going to be hard. Not because of the hiking itself, that’s not going to be an issue, but for the weather. Over the past month or so, it’s been all over the place. Spring has been rather cold, and then all of a sudden temperatures jumped up and summer was in full swing. Then they went down again. And up again. And down again. And now are up again.
I didn’t get to hike a lot over the past week because walking around with 35°C is not an enjoyable experience. Especially with the humidity that we often have here. And this is an especially tough weather for my dog, which is not built for this climate. And so we’re both doing what we can to adapt. We spend more time down on—and often in—the river. We try to go out very early in the morning or late at night.
That is another lesson nature taught me: you must adapt. There’s no bending nature to your will. When the warm weather hits, there’s not much you can do. You can either accept defeat, lock yourself inside with your fancy AC, wait for temperatures to go down, and give up enjoying nature. Or you can get creative and find ways to immerse yourself in nature even when it’s painfully hot outside. Or painfully cold. Or windy. Or when it’s raining.
Nature is not just sunny days with clear skies and a gentle breeze blowing in your face. It’s also getting pushed around by 100 km/h winds on top of a mountain. It’s getting rained upon and finding shelter in a dilapidated shack while out in the fields.
Last night, while I was lying on the grass, in the middle of nowhere out in the fields, looking at the sky, I was reflecting on how many things modernity has taken away from the many, many people who live in urban environments. It was a sad realisation. Some people will likely never get to enjoy staring at the sky and seeing the Milky Way. Some people will never get to fall asleep listening to the sound of the wind blowing through the trees.
So what do we do? We adapt. We use apps to simulate the sound of summer fields, flowing rivers, and winter storms. We watch videos of people exploring nature, trying to vicariously absorb their experiences. But those are nothing more than lame attempts to replace something that’s still out there, ready to be found, if only we decide to put some effort into it.
But enjoying nature does require some effort and requires accepting some discomfort. Requires dealing with this stupid hot weather, knowing that this too shall pass. Because it will pass. Summer will end at some point; it’s already on its way out, here in the northern hemisphere. Leaves will turn brown, days will become shorter, and the cycle will continue, unbothered by our insignificant existence.
— M
