I don’t want you here!

by foxgloveandfireweed

I don’t mean to be a selfish child about it! I have hiked the 18km return Grey Owl trail for over a decade. It is one of my favourite trails for accessibility in the park. The experience I had last weekend was by far the most exceptional! After federal government cutbacks left Riding Mountain under three season designation, the citizens of the region decided to take over the back-country trail grooming. The trail was alive with magic. While the crowds gather throughout the summer months and forget about the spirits that once convinced the Canadian government to mark this territory as a specially designated region; this experience made me remember about the mystery and majesty of solitary afternoons in nature without the crowds.

“These hours of solitude and meditation are the only ones in the day during which I am fully myself and for myself, without diversion, without obstacle, and during which I can truly claim to be what nature willed.”

“I have never been truly suited for civil society, where everything is annoyance, obligation, and duty, … my naturally independent temperament always made me incapable of the subjection necessary to anyone who wants to live among men.”

“Seeking refuge in mother nature, I sought in her arms to escape the attacks of her children. I have become solitary, or, as they say, unsociable and misanthropic, because to me the most desolate solitude seems preferable to the society of wicked men which is nourished only in betrayals and hatred.”

Quotes from Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Reveries of the Solitary Walker