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Joe Puentes

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Everyone Needs to Chill Out and go for a Hike

Everyone Needs to Chill Out and go for a Hike

Last updated on: November 19, 2018 at 7:04 am by Joe Puentes

Everyone Needs to Chill Out and go for a Hike 2018-11-19T07:04:35-07:00 Joe Puentes

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I have great respect and love for nature and the outdoors. I was born and raised in Northern California. When I lived in Santa Rosa, I didn’t give a second thought to driving to Bodega Bay, the Russian River or taking a saunter in Jack London State Park, and then driving to the Sierras the next day. Mountain biking, hiking, or backpacking was a part of my life—the wilderness has always been a place of refuge and healing for me.

There is a sacred space for everyone, we just have to want it and look for it. One of my sacred spaces is Colorado, and it’s not just the land it’s also the people. My time there and with it’s people have brought healing and rejuvenation to my soul many times over.

The places I grew up going to in Northern California got replaced with outdoor spots from Missouri, Colorado and Oregon: Place like Big Sugar Creek State Park, Prairie State Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, and the Ochoco National Forest. No matter where I’ve lived I always try to find a sacred space; a place where I can draw closer to God and recharge my soul. The chasm between earth and humanity is not as wide or deep as we assume.

We are living in s state of maelstrom.

Finding solitude in a sacred space allows God to use nature to speak stillness and wisdom to our spirits. The Holy Spirit will only be heard if we willing choose its voice over the loud noise of the world.

There is a level of destructive loathing and divisiveness in our nation at the moment. Anytime we put our fellow human beings in an arena designed for bloodletting, no one wins. Because of this, I’m taken aback by our lust to see each other devour one another for the sake of showing who’s right and who’s wrong.

Whether if it’s the Kavanaugh hearings or the current elections. It won’t matter who wins‬, everyone of us will experience this bleeding for a while, if it ever stops. It won’t and hasn’t for Christine Blasey Ford, Kavanaugh, the senators, candidates and their family members—husbands, wives, kids, grandkids, etc…

They are humans just as you and I are humans—they got family, ‬ friends, coworkers and neighbors. Imagine if you were one of them. I know what you’re thinking—this would never happen to you. I bet neither did any of them.

Sure, you might say they’re getting what they’ve asked for. It’s easy to say when‬ ‪your sitting in the box seats of the arena looking on with your fingers ready to pounce on your keypad.

Besides, I’m not so sure anyone—them, you or me wakes up in the morning and says, “I want XYZ to happen today.” If you think this, then you’re fooling yourself and you’ve forgotten what it means to be human.

I think it’s time everyone goes on a hike.

It’s hard to prove through science the curative qualities of what being out in the wilderness can do to someone’s soul, even though there’s research supporting this idea: Being outside can improve memory, fight depression, and lower blood pressure.

The hiker, the backpacker or outdoors person they’ll tell you the wilderness will cleanse and revitalize the soul.

If you want to get your humanity back, go on a long hike, canoe down a river, kayak out in the bay, or go camping where you can’t get any cell reception—I’ll guarantee you will find your humanity and you might find your soul. ‬

I want to leave you with this quote:

“Everybody needs beauty… places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul alike.”

― John Muir

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