Silence and Simplicity

Sunday, 5:30pm

It’s Sunday and it’s been incredibly hot today. It was up to 85 degrees and my body is covered in sweat. I started my solo at 12, so I had to do a lot of my “labor” then. I set up my tent at the edge of the woods and my yard in between a large pine and some tall bushes. My tent is pretty small, but it took me about 45 minutes to figure out and step up. Then, I found a rope and hung my food bag up in a tree branch. All my food in the bag is in zip-lock bags as well, in order to keep animals from smelling it. Right now I am laying on a blanket on the ground under a few small trees, just enough to provide some shade. I think there are many bird nests in this area because there are constantly many birds flying about. I look to my left and see an old birdhouse my mom put up about a month ago. I hadn’t noticed though that birds were actually living in it. I think a blue jay and a type of sparrow have nests in the house. I hear a strange noise, somewhat like a high pitched sawing noise. I look up to see a squirrel in a tree and I assume the noise is coming from it.

Sunday, 9:00pm

It was 6:30 when I started to get hungry, so I began to gather supplies for starting a fire. I made my fire with thicker logs at the bottom and used lighter material as I piled to the top. I used twigs, dried leaves, and old dried goldenrod. I was using matches to light it and it took a while before it started going, but once it got hot enough, it was a pretty big fire. When it was hot enough, I boiled less than a cup of water in a small pot for some instant oatmeal. I sat around the fire for a long time and listened to the wood crackle. Now it’s around 9 and I walk towards a large pine tree. I put my book in my mouth and held onto it tight as I climbed the tree. I was around 25ft off the ground and I couldn’t find a comfortable spot to sit. I climbed around the tree and went down a few branches to find a nice spot to sit while I read my book. I lay against the truck, which irritates my sunburn, but other than that I am comfortable. After reading for what felt like 10 minutes it was about 9:45 and it was getting harder and harder to see the words on the page. I climbed down the tree and went into my tent.

I had expected the trip to be boring and lonely, but between getting lost in, Into the Wild, and simply trying to be present in nature, I found the alone time very peaceful. I would often find myself dosing off in the “natural silence.” As the night progressed, I would hear less manmade noises, cars or neighbors talking, and more of nature’s voices, coyotes yelping in the distance and bunnies rustling in close by thorn bushes.

Monday, 9:45am

This morning I woke up at 9:30 to bagpipes. I sat up and was quite confused, but then I realized it was probably a funeral in the cemetery adjacent to my yard. I got up and sat down on an exposed root of an old pine. The dew from the grass was making my feet wet, but it was sitting in the sun, so I was fairly warm. The sun was directly hitting my sunburned shoulder which hurt with every movement. My legs and arms are covered in dried sweat and I feel disguising. My vision in one of my eyes is becoming blurry because I hadn’t changed my contacts. I could tell that these last few hours were going to be difficult and uncomfortable in this heat. But as I thought about the discomfort I was feeling in the moment, I realized that not everything in life has to be comfortable. And that every day I live in extreme comfort compared to the conditions other people have lived in. Right now, air conditioning would be very nice, but I don’t need it. This is when I really started to understand Thoreau’s message about living simple and how Chris McCandless also put this into extreme practice by leaving almost all his possessions behind, including burning his money. With simple living, rejecting a life a luxury and comfort, they were able to listen to the natural world and enjoy life as an experience, not a chore.