Editor’s note: Because so many events have been canceled lately, the editor of this section has decided to put Trail Mix on hold for the time being. In place of weekly nature event listings, expect to see a nature column by Andy Castillo titled “Finding Beauty.”
What if I told you that, perhaps down a narrow path that’s probably just around the corner from your house, there’s a peaceful place that’s not contaminated by the fear and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has very quickly swallowed life as we know it.
What if, in that place, the frenzied pace of essential information has slowed to a trickle and news of quarantine lockdown orders has disappeared altogether, as if they never existed in the first place. What if the most important breaking developments are that an American bullfrog has emerged from the mud and a hungry black bear is stepping into spring’s warm sunlight for the first time this season. Soon, a sea of amphibians will begin their annual trek to vernal pools — stirred to life by Mother Nature’s warming touch.
What if I told you this magical space of solitude exists — somewhere — probably just around the corner from your house.
There, wherever that is, an army of ants will soon be marching to the drum of productivity. Small woodland creatures are rustling to life. Deer step a little more energetically. The noise of shoppers stripping shelves as quickly as employees can restock them is replaced by the melodic trill of redwing blackbirds, having recently returned from their annual southerly migration. The ice is melting from the pond and the blossoms of bloodroot, blue flag, boneset and bunchberry burst at their buds. Soon, the soft atmosphere of that place will be colored in a sea of flowers.
Mud squelches underfoot and the rocks glisten with the residue of a nearby brook that’s bubbling over its banks.
Can you feel the cool breeze on your skin and smell the air? It’s so crisp and bright, like the blue sky overhead, which can be seen through the reddening branches of a maple tree.
In these troubling times, we might not be able to greet one another with a hug or a handshake, but we can step outside into the gift that is nature. Its embrace is a balm that soothes away the anxiety of an uncertain future.
As society becomes more and more stressful to exist within, nature, in its cyclical regularity, continues unhindered.
This historic health crisis we’re living through right now will eventually run its course and life will return to a semblance of normalcy. Before that happens, though, things will probably become more uncertain. Until then, you can find me lost in nature — a solitude that’s either found in my own imagination or in real life, with the frogs and the birds — at a place of solitude that’s a short hike down a muddy trail just around the corner from my apartment.
Andy Castillo is the features editor of the Greenfield Recorder. He holds a master’s degree in creative nonfiction from Bay Path University and can be reached at acastillo@recorder.com.