Waldeinsamkeit

Here are some of my favorite mountain adventure pics from last week! My family and I have been going to Cloudland Canyon State Park for years now and it has remained one of my all time favorite places. Even though I consider myself a city gal, I also crave to be surrounded my trees and mountains every now and then (okay, more like every day). I love this state park because it has some of the most diverse trails in the southern U.S. including two waterfalls! It's funny how man was actually designed to be attracted to nature, when you dissect it, all it really is are a bunch of rocks, dirt, and twigs yet somehow it evokes emotion.

This brings me to the title of this post, Waldeinsamkeit, which is a German word that really translates to a feeling rather than a literal definition. It consists of two words: “Wald” meaning forest, and “Einsamkeit” meaning loneliness or solitude. It is the feeling of being alone in the woods, but it also hints at a connectedness to nature. When I researched it further, I found a poem my Emerson with this as it's title and I fell in love with it.

What are some of your favorite places to get lost?

"I do not count the hours I spend
In wandering by the sea;
The forest is my loyal friend,
Like God it useth me.

In plains that room for shadows make Of skirting hills to lie,
Bound in by streams which give and take
Their colors from the sky;

Or on the mountain-crest sublime,
Or down the oaken glade,
O what have I to do with time?
For this the day was made.

Cities of mortals woe-begone
Fantastic care derides,
But in the serious landscape lone
Stern benefit abides.

Sheen will tarnish, honey cloy,
And merry is only a mask of sad,
But, sober on a fund of joy,
The woods at heart are glad.

There the great Planter plants
Of fruitful worlds the grain,
And with a million spells enchants
The souls that walk in pain."

-Exert from Ralph Waldo Emerson if you would like to read the whole poem, click HERE