Spending time in the backcountry has a way of highlighting how insignificant most things are that occupy my mind in the "real world". It brings me back to the basics - the very essence of what it means to be alive.

In the natural world, life is slow, simple, raw, and demands my absolute attention. The inputs are multi-sensory and primal: cold, heat, thirst, hunger, fatigue, pain, safety, and relationships. If I let any one of those go unchecked for too long, I am in trouble. Real trouble. In the modern world, life is complex and shallow. Everything competes for my attention and yet I can ignore 90% of it and be no worse for wear, while the remaining 10% is questionable.

While in the Tetons I didn't think about the blog. I didn't think about work. I didn't think about money. I didn't think about house projects. Actually, I don't really know what I thought about. There was no computer, Internet, television, radio, books, or any other form of media to occupy my mind. I just walked. And ate. And slept. And formed relationships with new-found friends. I was not bored - not even for a moment - and I returned home changed in some incalculable way.

When was the last time you:

• Carried all of the belongings that you needed to survive on your back?
• Encountered absolutely breathtaking, natural beauty around every corner and over every hill?
• Rejoiced at seeing a small trickle of water and truly appreciated the life-sustaining benefits it brings?
• Ate a meal because you were truly hungry (instead of due to schedule, stress, or boredom)?
• Depended on the people directly around you for meeting your immediate needs of food, water, shelter, and safety?
• Succumbed to the rhythms of light, going to bed when it got dark and waking-up with the sunrise?

These are the experiences that we need to have on a regular basis to keep ourselves in check. They help clean out all of the crap that escapes through our filters and worms its way into our soul. The kind of crap that causes us to escape into the world of Farmville.

"Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." - John Muir