I'm still cleaning out the Hollow basement......so here's another reissue from last Spring... I don't think many ever saw the early posts around here, so it's new to most of you. :)
"The Wilderness Of My Heart"
I was born and raised in the not so wild land of American suburbia so I have always been struck oddly by my fascination with the wild places of the world. Now, living some of my childhood in the foothills of the Blue Ridge in Georgia might have been the embryonic stage of my obsession with those seldom traveled and thinly inhabited areas around where I have lived my 38 years.
Out in Texas, one didn't have to drive too terribly far west of Dallas to feel like you were in a wilder place but with the land being so open and scraggly I just never got the sense of being somewhere lost to mankind. There is certainly something to be written about the wide open spaces of that sprawling grassy world, but that's for another post. I would have to travel far out into the big country under the cap rock near Big Spring or into the remoter regions of the West Texas desert to sate that thirst for isolation that my soul so desperately needed.
I suppose that's one of the reasons I love Appalachia so much... it's so damn easy to just....disappear. A short drive from my home, and an hour up a steep trail, and I might as well be a thousand miles away from anything civilized. I rarely see other hikers around here except when I drive up to the Appalachian trail in North Georgia, which is always busy with weekend warriors. I have hiked hundreds of miles of trails out here, and have run into maybe a couple of dozen souls during all those hikes. Only the sound of passenger jets hurrying busy people to their fretful meetings in the frantic cities breaks the tranquil songs of the woods from time to time.
It's a quick escape from the SUV driving demons chatting madly into their cellphones, and the other spells of busyness cast by the modern world. I relish any chance I get to throw on my hiking shoes and just tell Secret that "I'll be back!".....
... in 4 hours or 40 days. Sometimes I wish I could just vanish into the wilds to return with my old worldly skin shed---- my heart alive with spiritually heroic tales of resisting and winning a final victory over the rich and luscious temptations that the darkness in my soul craves. ....But life doesn't always play out in such an intense drama, so I will kiss her goodbye and tell her when I will be home to my loved ones, keeping the mystery to myself of exploring the wilderness of the mountains and my heart; to spend time with that ancient part of my physical body that is composed of water, minerals and stardust.
This is the view from 10 minutes from my house...
Image copyright, Scott Scarborough; 2006
