on urban nature and
cottagecore realness
In this modern world, the most difficult action for me has become to sleep my nights well. In order to have a good night's sleep, I need to be physically active throughout the day. That's the easy part, I walk at least 12000 steps each day and train once or twice a day on six days out of seven. This might sound excessive, but the truth is, if I have a sedentary day (conference day at work or busy home day with not much opportunity for moving around) I don't have enough of sleep pressure, and while I fall asleep easily, I wake up in the middle of the night, ready to start the day.
But like I said, the physical part is easy. The tricky part is to have mentally neutral day. That means, if I have been stressing too much about something, or been too excited and invested in something, I have very hard time to wire my brain down for bed. It is very difficult for me to live in this modern world where so much information is at hand. I also work in a field where I can research and lose myself into intriguing topics, only to suffer when I have to surface and do the mundane, ordinary things of my job as well.
But now I have my autumn vacation, and where else would I start it than in the forest? Picking mushrooms, ending up walking over 7 kilometers and getting caught by rain multiple times ensured that I slept soundly. I feel people have nostalgia towards the agricultural times of human culture, but my feelings go further in the past: I would be happiest as a gatherer.
I know a spot in the forest. In late summer, it started giving me blueberries. When autumn arrived, it gave me lingonberries alongside the blueberries. Now, as autumn has deepened, it has started yielding yellowfoot chanterelles (one of the few mushrooms a novice like me dares to pick safely). I'm so grateful! And what a feeling to come home and make food for my family from these fine forest finds. I feel very lucky and privileged in this modern world that tries to uproot us from nature and keep us detached from living according to the seasons.
After quitting social media, I discovered a genuine need for old-fashioned magazines, just so that I can stay informed about topical matters. Yes, it appears I would like to be influenced, who would have thought?
I don't have magazines delivered home, no, the mere idea of the paper I then need to recycle after finally deciding I don't need it horrifies me. So I go to the local library. There I can find a wide selection of magazines, always something that piques my interest. Today it was mushroom picking.
Yesterday I fell asleep quickly. I slept soundly through the night. I woke up before the alarm, feeling fresh and rested. I started my day happy and full of gratitude. I took a look at the data my activity tracker collected during my amazing night. My wearable had determined that I slept poorly and that I should be aware that my performance would not be top notch today. I instantly felt my good mood melting away, and I started to fulfill the gloomy prophecy my activity tracker had doomed me to.
I had a bad night and a bad work day. I tried to recover from my nightmares by doing a chilled strength training session at my own pace, and I think it made my morning a bit better. But at that point I did not know the day was bound to be unsuccesful. After work I stormed into a forest nearby, and let one of the last light summer rains to wash my foul mood while I was inhaling the scent of trees. Have this ever not worked?
Yesterday I ended my summer break with my team sport. Due to anonymity I'm not willing to go into details what my sport is, since it is a niche sport and the international scene is pretty small. But I can tell you this: it has speed, it takes courage, it gives laughs and after a good training I feel beautiful, strong and accomplished.
I have always thought that the reason sports and competing make me feel good is that I'm good at it, that I'm embodying some sort of strategic and physically able player that is a gift for this sport. But recently, I read a book called The Science of Happiness by Bruce Hood and learnt that moving together with other people makes you feel good.
Because I am very down to earth and practical, as I remember my grandmother used to also be, I'm prone to thinking that the most likely thing is true: in this case, the truth is that I'm not special, others are. It is very special and important to us humans to move together, to support our overall health. That probably explains the popularity of fitness group exercising. While moving together we have more fun, we're more motivated to push our limits and get the health benefits of both socializing and being vigorously active. Community is good for us.
The snake was black and big, and I was afraid it was annoyed that I happened to trespass its mossy hoods. I love snakes, but I very seldom encounter them in the wilderness, not even yearly. In the moment I was very alert, because I didn't recall any details how to identify this as non-venomous, as I only recalled that adder, the only venomous snake in Finland, might appear black too. So I backed away, and after I had gotten safe distance, I opened my phone and researched the internet: it's a grass snake. They are harmless! It did occur to me, that the snake was pretty robust to be an adder, but better safe than sorry.
Last week I saw three little frogs, I love frogs too and I'm way more accustomed to meet them in nature. I am sad that because all the cities in Finland have now this rule saying we shouldn't have open ditches but all the rain waters and such should be collected to sewer system. What a waste! It has drastically reduced places where the frogs can spawn.
I would have not thought 15 years ago, that handcoding a webpage is something I'd consider a cozy crafting hobby with my kid. But this is what life has become. If we want, so much of us doing things ourselves can be taken out of equation. We can just enjoy the result.
I do understand this, a bit, too. We are thought right from our childhoods, that it's the end result that matters. Being productive doesn't mean you're enjoying your life or doing something meaningful, it means you're getting things done, you're getting end results. It is also often confused with being useful (even though that is in my opinion always under a debate that from whose point of view we are viewing the usefulness), even though it can be downright harmful.
It must be something to do with the human species' ability to survive and spread around, that we are so fixated on getting more and more and more. But the irony is that so many individuals are starting to crumble down under the weight of it all. Why is it so difficult to see that the answer is wanting less, minding others and being part of community? Isn't that how we get peace, meaning and overall health? Did you see productivity in this combination? Me neither.