This is the view from my window. On the end of that street in front of us, go sort of straight on for about five minutes. There’s a heath, surrounded by trees on three sides. It’s a magnificent open space. I looked it up on the map, from there you can enter the biggest forest in the Netherlands and walk all the way to Arnhem without having to leave the protection of the trees.
Everyday we walk the heath. We walk randomly on its paths. ‘I think this path is used mostly by animals’, I say when we are following a vague path, barely visible. ‘Well, what do you think we are? We’re animals too’, answers Kristian.
They call it a Russian Bear. The Siberian iciness is making it all the way to here. I kind of like it. It makes me feel connected with the far away Russia. It’s a very unusual cold, so sharp and fresh. The skies have been clear for a while. ‘They’ve stopped spraying. I don’t see any trails’, says Kristian. He tells me that they admitted manipulating the weather. ‘Who is they?’ I ask him. I take deep and slow breaths, noticing how delicious the air feels in my nose and lungs. It hurts a little. The inside of my nose is sensitive. It makes my eyes tear. There is something coming towards us, in the form of a crazy sky, filled with snow. How unusual.
The clear skies don’t stay for long. We walk the dog, who is not ours actually. She’s an assistance dog but sometimes we take care of her. She can be so submissive it’s uncomfortable. At times she has a creepy robotic vibe around her, especially when she doesn’t understand something. But I know she’s just a dog who has been programmed by us.
Strolling around these paths, it’s not hard to imagine being in a long gone past. A time where humankind walked on sand instead of drove on asphalt. When there were less landscape interventions. But appearances are deceiving, these kind of landscapes don’t maintain themselves. I guess this land was once occupied by grazing animals like sheeps, who kept the heath from growing too many trees. Now, men in overalls with loud stinking portable cutting machines control the growth of the shrubs and the few trees. They are preparing it for the spring.
It’s magnificent how I got familiar. At first it seemed as nothing out of the ordinary, just a place to get my daily physical exercise. But I get to know the trees, the places where we can find shelter against the wind. There is this one perfect spot, with a bench faced towards the sun. When the sun’s out it’s comfortable there, even when it’s deep winter. We take off our jackets, gloves and hats. Our shoes, now and then. We do some stretching, qigong and louhan patting.
For me this is special. I never got the experience of being daily in nature, living close to a place where things seem untouched by the hand of human. And actually get to know that place. Seeing how it’s slightly different each day. Bright, heavy clouded or something in between. With or without trails piercing the sky. Imagining how underground it’s preparing to burst out in color.
Appreciating this tiny corner of earth that's right in front of my eyes is something that took time. A little to often I spend my energy longing for other things, ignoring the things I have. A healthy body, the present moment and relatively fresh air, to name a few things.
I wonder what it’s like for you, fellow steemians. Do you live in a place close to nature? Does your country has a lot of ‘untouched’ nature? Do you feel connected to the place you live? Do you feel appreciation and gratitude? Or do you have no idea what I'm talking about?
I mean, I think that in the Netherlands there is not much authentic nature left. It’s almost all man made, with exceptions of course. The Netherlands is for a big part below sea level. If man hadn’t intervene, the western part wouldn’t exist no more. Well, it would exist, but it would be sea. The shore would begin where I live now, I reckon. Somewhere in the middle. I think what uses up most space up here are pastures and farmland and buildings, like houses and factories. The authentic pieces of nature has shrunk. Gobbled up by grass or corn or tulip fields. Deforestation is everywhere.
So, if I wanted to start planting trees, where would I begin?