Seek your Silence

So this week hasn’t gone as planned.  I was hoping for a fun early spring trip into the outdoors.  I was looking forward to saying goodbye to winter and hello spring.  But that wasn’t in the cards.  Instead, I was hit by the flu.  The body chills, coughing and aches have been terrible.  I’ve gone from bedridden to recliner ridden, to now finally being able to sit at my computer.  Between the hours of trying to sleep and relaxing I’ve filled some of my time with TV and social media.  That was until I couldn’t take it anymore.  It was all just noise.  It was constant fighting, everyone pointing out what others are doing wrong.  Gloom and doom could fill your life for hours if you wanted it to.  Even the daytime talk shows that used to be filled with interesting topics and people are filled with negativity. And what happened to the Flintstones being on after the Channel 7 News at noon?  How have we gone from educating people in 30 minutes on what is happening in the world to the need to convince everyone that there is only one way to look at the world and what is happening is all one side's fault. Don’t forget that you better damn well agree with them or you are worse than the freshly thawed dog poo you just stepped on in the yard.  I’ve watched people who are friends argue and fight over things that we don’t even have hard facts about yet.  Companies are so hell bent on being the first one to tell us about something that they don’t even know what to talk about so they just start creating their own narrative then quietly redact what they said as the information slowly trickles in.  It is sickening.  I honestly have no idea how we have allowed our brains to take in so much of this nonsense.    They constantly tell us that we need to stay informed, and I agree, but you can’t even make out what they are informing us about anymore.  After being thoroughly disgusted with what I had taken in in such a short amount of time I decided to turn it all off.  I sat in the chair and the only sound was the slight wheeze that was coming from my lungs.  I had to admit it sounded better than the talking heads on the TV.   I stirred up enough energy to take the dogs out and looked up at the night sky. It was beautiful.  I decided to head back in the house, bundle up and go sit in the chair outside. Surrounded by darkness I watched the stars twinkle against their endless black background.   Off in the far distance coyotes sang and owls hooted their night time song.  Other than my occasional coughing fits the world around me was silent.  It was the calmest I had felt in days.  I pondered how people who truly care for each other and would offer their last cent to each other could argue on social media with so much venom.  As I watched Orion slowly rotate through the shadows of a tamarack tree, thoughts of what should be important to us trickled through my head.  Once this magnificent constellation cleared the tree limbs I headed back inside and crawled into bed.  I hopped back on my phone but instead of surfing the web I decided to click on my photos app.  8,321 images were immediately at my fingertips.  Pictures of the sun peaking through the winter pines came to me. 

Mountain top, stream sides and wildlife filled my phone as I scrolled. 

Thousands of smiling family members and friends flooded my screen.   Moments in time that have brought such joy to me were captured with the click of a button to hold on to to relive again and again. 

I decided to take a few more puffs from my inhaler and closed my eyes.  As I tried to drift off to sleep a reality hit me (and maybe I’m behind the times). We all need to use less brain space viewing the images that the media wants us to see and spend more time looking at our own photos.  If we want less noise in our lives we need to start focusing more on what makes us happy and less on what we are being told to hate. Sometimes we need silence to reflect on what is most important to us. 

What does this have to do with the outdoors?

I know this topic is a bit out of my traditional writing but I guess sometimes we see the world differently through feverish eyes.  And I can honestly say the fevers with this flu were awful.  We all have special places where memories are made.  For some it may be a special family trip, a tradition of playing cards at grandma's or opening up camp for the summer. 

We latch on to these things and set them aside to remember at special times in our lives.  For me, some of my greatest memories are outdoors.  I find that getting away from the day to day noise is essential to my happiness and allows me to create memories I will cherish forever. 

Something as simple as a walk on a cool fall day can clear the clutter that is rattling around in my head.  I think we could all use a little less clutter in our brains and a little more silence in our heads.  So the next time you find yourself filled with disgust or anger pull out that phone and look at your photos instead of social media.  I bet you just might find your happiness sitting in the palm of your hand. 

If you find yourself with extra free time instead of listening to the gloom and doom on the TV, start surfing the web for your next adventure. I bet you will find more joy in talking about your upcoming trip than dwelling on what someone on TV was paid to say.  So take some time away from the noise, seek your silence and focus on you and how you will enjoy your next Northern NY Adventure.  Don’t forget to take some pictures so you can relive them over and over again for years to come.  

Aaron Hardy

Northern NY Adventures

“Make Life an Adventure”