An Unexpected Shot of Serenity

Great Falls Virginia 

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I still have my struggles with anxiety and maintaining my serenity. In part, they are due to physical and geographical burnout. Sometimes life is life. I do what I can. I have a greater awareness of myself and my needs today. Serenity goes hand in hand with connecting with my spiritual side. This includes spending time in nature. Recent studies have advised that city living is detrimental to psychological health₁. Getting away from concrete and pavement and spending time in open green spaces is good for or us ₂.

I didn't need a study to tell me that city life does not agree with me. I know first-hand having lived it. My professional life has had me sitting at a desk, staring at a computer monitors eights hour a day. Work is not the only part of my day. I have been commuting back and forth from Jersey to Manhattan for the past 20 years. I like my job, love who I work with, but the commute will be my death. The hustle and bustle of trains and automobiles. The endless assault on my ears and nose. The maddening crowds jammed like cattle going to slaughter. It all wears my soul down.

The fulcrum of life-work balance has tipped too far in the wrong direction. The daily effort participating in the rat race drains me. My physical, emotional, and spiritual levels are on empty and my serenity is shot. There is nothing special or unique about my situation. There are hundreds of thousands of other people doing the same thing. Each day cramming themselves in cars, buses, and trains each day going to and from work. I got lost in career maze. Hypnotized by its bright lights, and fooled by the promise of profit and materialism. 

       

  Connecting with nature has been my gateway from insanity to Serenity. It was almost incidental the way I discovered hiking. My girlfriend and I were stuck inside with a case of cabin fever. It has been a particularly cold and snowy winter. We were having an endless conversation about our lives and warm sunny places we would like to see. We both professed an affinity for the outdoors but never had explored it.

Our first inkling of what lay in store for us came during a very warm April day. It was the first nice day after a miserable winter full of blizzards and bitter cold. We wanted to take advantage of this early Spring respite. We took a trip to Great Falls National Park in McLean Virginia. We didn’t have a plan, but we were stir crazy having spent most of the winter indoors, and we went.

Immediately upon exiting, I took a deep breath of fresh air. A winter’s worth of tension eased from my shoulders. The sun cut through the still barren trees as we walked. Beautiful wildflowers: white bloodroots, pink spring beauties, and purple periwinkles dotted our path. Yellow and Blue butterflies followed us, fluttering alongside us as if marking our way.

We only a walked only a short distance before we noticed a shift in awareness. Ever slight but so profound the feeling was deep stillness in our soul. Joy replaced the tedious boredom which plagued us all winter. We continued walking, sometimes holding hands, sometimes not. The rushing waters of the Potomac flowed beside us. The snowmelt from West Virginia swelled its banks. It flowed over the falls meditative sound like crashing waves. And a single yellow butterfly acted as our guide.

We reached the end of our trail and turned back. Our butterfly guide still led the way. Acting as if they were an oracle to our future. Letting us know the changes you seek are easier than you think – trust the natural order of Universe. We kept walking, feeling the warmth of the sun and the sweat on our brows. We made our way back down to the Great Falls themselves. Standing on the observation deck we watched the Potomac River rush over the falls. Whitewater spilled unevenly over the jagged rocks, into the stillness of Mather Gorge. A Great Blue Heron wadded in a shallow pool unaffected by the swirling waters. From a distance, he seemed to be staring at us. Casually flapping his wings, soundly beating out in a mysterious avian code. Telling us to calm the turbulent waters of our mind and before we can soar the skies above.”

It took a few days to process the meaning of our day trip. We saw that for things to change for us on the external level, we would need to change our thinking on an internal level. We felt guided to follow the path laid out before us. We vowed to spend more time connecting with nature. Following our hearts into green spaces where we could begin to still our minds and grow our intimacy. This short hike led us to recognize our inter-connectivity with all things. It was unexpected shot of serenity! And it led us to the next stage of our journey along the path of transformation.

1. City living and urban upbringing affect neural social stress processing in humans. Nature. 2011;474(7352):498–501. [PubMed]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21697947

2. Interdisciplinary Centre for Environment and Society, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, U.K.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov./pubmed/20337470