As mentioned before, I enjoy my time away from the Metropolis I live in and seek the wild confines that is our Planet Earth.  When I long for the creaking of an Ancient Red Wood, I’m reminded of a quote from Edward Abbey:

“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am — a reluctant enthusiast… a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.” – Edward Abbey

And so as I ruminate about my next journey, Into the Wild, I feel this overwhelming sense to protect and provide for protection of the Natural Beauty of a place.  Today in Chicago it feels like Panama and as I get antsy at my desk I can’t think of anything better than hoping into the Pacific after a long hike through the jungle; cracking open a coconut; and listening to the Island.