Adopt the pace of nature

By Allen Macartney

Rating: *****

Adopt the pace of nature is a very in depth article about today’s life style of fast and instant services and busy day to day life. It holds many great points and philosophical views about how people are losing the ability to be able to sit down and relax. I who am also part of this life style completely agree and it has become my new favourite article.

The article starts in Algonquin Park and is about a man who has gone camping with his wife to get away from the busy city.  He wakes up and decides to go down to the lake to enjoy and admire nature. While he is admiring nature he remembers the advice from a man named Ralph Waldo Emerson who said to “adopt the pace of nature”. This makes the man begin to think about today’s life style and talking about the flaws of it. He says that our turbo charged life style has made multi-tasking a normal everyday battle, and how that our dependence of speed has made us people want to have nothing and has made us lose the ability to do get-away trips because we just want it to go faster.  He then goes on to say that we people want instant gratification so that they can go on to the next thing. I myself also share that way of thinking and irritates me that people don’t want to fully enjoy relaxation and instead just have it like taking a hot espresso, gives you a quick energy first then gives you a crash. He gives out pointers to help people relax in our ever bust schedule. He tells us too: go for a really slow walk during lunch time, turn off our radios and sing our own songs, take your time portaging to enjoy the view instead of going all high-speed like it’s a marathon, listen to your campfire for 15 minutes to get a soul refreshing sleep, leave behind all those pesky electronics distracting you from your getaway, and try to get up at 5:30 in the woods to listen to the golden silence.

I truly do love this article it had a lot of good in sight on how people’s lives are affected by their busy and fast life style and how we can find ways to get away. This article has gotten me thinking that I should get out more often and go do something like go to a park or bike down a dirt road on a warm summer day. It has also gotten me thinking that fast isn’t always the best ting and sometimes taking it slow and steady is better. Lastly it has inspired me to tell other people to change their way of life and to stop worrying about their busy life and instead enjoy life.

I really recommend this article to everyone. It was very informative, there were philosophical views and there were great ideas to. I hope you get the chance to read this article and feel the way I felt about it.

Ottawa Outdoors, Spring/Summer 2009, Pg 8-9 Adopt the pace of nature by Allen Macartney