Once in a While, Listen to Those Throaty Crickets

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One of America’s favorite pastimes, primitive camping (add electricity and bathrooms for an extra fee), has turned me into a renegade city dweller. For a couple of days, I remained off the grid, but still managed to snap a few pictures to revisit the place I want to go back to as soon as I can.

During my stay at the trail’s end of the Appalachian mountains, I walked bare feet with my (super conductor) silver toe rings so I could absorb the earth element as much as I can into my body. I wanted never to forget this feeling of how earth feels like, soft and mushy with blades of grass tickling my feet. I had begun to think that tiles and concrete make up the earth.

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I found it very hard to turn my eyes away from the brilliant orange glow of the crackling fire pit in the chilly nights. I felt that in a strange way, we were each other’s fuel to stoke the fire within us.

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When I heard the water in the streams run and crickets croak all night, I did not want my eye lids to fall. I wanted to listen that intently.

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The five elements, earth, fire, water, air and space, don’t seem to tell each other that in their own power, they stand alone, and are not really dependent on one another. They simply exist with unconditional trust, freedom and generosity in this shared space. They teach me to reserve my judgement, perceptions, and just be accepting and content and to believe that I am blessed to some day disintegrate and become one with them.

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I come back to my home in the city with a heightened sense of awareness of the infinite powers of nature’s creativity showing me that artificial intelligence that we have built in our immediate surroundings has its many limitations.