On my second expedition down to the river, about a week later, I still had the misguided view of trip as an assignment, rather than what it was: a real chance to learn and simply enjoy the panacea that nature is. I only realized this truth on the third trek down, and I’ll never forget it. Before I headed down, I grabbed the Woodberry trail map. For a while, I walked and read the map with mild interest, until I saw a quote from Henry David Thoreau: “Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.” This line instantly resonated with me and sent goose bumps along my arms and a shiver down my spine. Even though I hadn’t yet found the words to explain what I just felt, or why I felt it, I couldn’t help but sense that some part of me had just changed.
As I saw it, Thoreau meant that nothing invokes as much thought and curiosity as nature, and that an active body is also an active mind. For reasons that I still don’t fully understand, in that moment I fully bought into what Thoreau was saying, and my attitude switched completely. I saw what I was doing in a new light. Now inspired with a new sense of expectation to learn and be fascinated by nature, I was seeing nature in a way I hadn’t before. Once I paid attention, sounds seemed louder and more distinct, and something as simple as a blade of grass captured more of my curiosity than I remember it ever having before in my entire life.
From this one quote alone, which affected me as much as all the other writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and David Haskell, my outlook on nature changed from one of moderate to great curiosity and enjoyment. But maybe more even important, I came to understand that my expectations and the way I approached nature totally changed what I got out of it; once I expected to find curiosity and enjoyment in nature, I actually was curious and did enjoy being outside.
Now when I make the journeys outside, I walk with my phone turned off and zipped inside my backpack. And instead, in my left jacket pocket, is a folded map.
~ Owen Jones
