During my drive to work today I caught myself smiling. Here I was, first work day back from our backpacking trip with a huge pile of tasks to complete and I was smiling. How crazy is that? Quite often the first day back is a white knuckle drive with teeth grinding as I rapidly work through everything that has been piling up since I left. Today? I was smiling.

The entire drive consisted of viewing the bluffs and the river as a tourist, taking in the beauty of the colors of nature. I had a wonderful forest related song mix playing on my stereo. Each song brought back different memories from our recent trip. I occasionally thought of the work day ahead and smiled. I’d just spent a few days living out of a backpack, filtering water from lakes and streams, carrying my only earthly possessions at the time literally on my back, and the bathroom… you get the idea 😉. Work? That’s easy!

Over the past year and a half five really seen an interesting correlation. My state of chill is exponentially proportional to the amount of time I’ve recently spent in the wild. More forest, way more relaxed. More hiking in nature, way more chill. More fresh air in the woods, much lower blood pressure.

This past weekend brought about one of the most profound states of chill I’ve had in a very long time. It’s memory is so fresh in my head. The last hike seared into my brain and soul.

Thanks!!!