Nature Discovered

While today I am back to wearing my faux-patent leather sandals at work, with my hair cleaned and combed, and even a little bit of makeup, this weekend I was sans all of that; and I loved it.  I love sleeping outside, cooking my meals over a fire, getting dirty in the woods, hiking up to the Appalachian trail, and warming up by the fire.  Love love love it.

Camping was my thing.  I don’t think Kevin could recall the last time he had camped when we first met.  It was one of our first trips together, camping that is, and then everytime we went to the beach, we would camp.  For Kevin it was about the fish, for me, it was about the tent, the fire, the woods.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved, and still do love the beach.  I love the crashing waves, the serenity of nature by the shore, the sand under my toes.  But my soul loves the quiet eeriness of being in the woods, the crack of branch under foot, the steady climb up a mountain path, the babbling brooks that cross ahead.  I have always loved that.

I grew up camping-I spent many nights damp and drenched from a passing thundershower with my family in an old green tent.  I loved it.  I was raised vacationing in the woods, and near a hiking or biking trail.  It is what we did as a family, and something I always enjoyed.

When you marry someone, when are you with someone, you tent to just bend towards what they enjoy as well.  You enjoy it too, but you create something that suits both of you.  It is one of the beauties of compromise: discovering what you can do together that you both love.

I loved the beach, I still do, but what is really me?  Camping.  In the woods.  I hiked up about 1.5 miles, a 1000 foot climb to the Applachian Trail this weekend and I loved it.  Don’t get me wrong, it kicked my bum, but it was great.  Interestingly, I am also reading ‘A Walk in the Woods’ by Bill Bryson which just puts to life what I experienced in the woods this weekend.  The thrill of nature and our communications with it is fantastic.  I truly enjoy walking in the woods.

It is nice to discover something that is me, something that I know I enjoy just in myself, as a hobby.  Not us, not a past memory, but created just for me.

Discoveries ahead.

Brenda Sieglitz

Brenda Lee Sieglitz is an author and public speaker whose topics focus on travel, grief, and nature. Widowed in 2008 at 24 years of age, Brenda is an advocate for sarcoma patients, the widowed community, and conservation through her volunteerism with the National Park Service, Lancaster County Conservancy, Pennsylvania Master Naturalist, Hospice of Lancaster County, Soaring Spirits International, Angiosarcoma Awareness and Highmark Caring Place. Brenda won the 2009 Associated Content “Content of the Year” award, and in 2011 was named one of Wyndham Women’s “Women on their Way”. Most recently her love and loss memoir, Ebb from the Shoreline, won 1st Place Editor’s Choice in Nonfiction at the 2014 North American Book Awards. Sieglitz holds a degree in business and became a Pennsylvania Master Naturalist in 2015. In her spare time, she adores playing with her two nieces, going on family adventures with her husband, stepdaughter and son-in-law, hiking, camping and is working to complete her bucket list dream of visiting all National Park units. Sieglitz has been married to her best friend Dave since 2013 and continues to reside in Lancaster County with their two beagles Scotch and Fina.

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