One way to feel tranquil this weekend

Amy Shearn
Forge
Published in
1 min readMay 14, 2021

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🌲Today’s tip: Find some “forest loneliness.”

Daily life can be so very, well, civilized. Sit inside. Look at computer. Follow rules of polite human behavior. Blah, blah, blah. Sometimes, as Kristin Wong writes in Forge, you need to shake things up with a little break from being civilized. For Wong, this means taking long walks in the woods, in search of “the calm feeling of solitude that overcomes you when you’re in a forest alone.” Of course there’s a German word for this: waldeinsamkeit, which translates to “forest loneliness.”

That calm sense is a close cousin of awe — which many of us are sorely lacking in our every day lives, and which we need in order to feel human. So this weekend, find some small ways to “summon the wild into our day-to-day lives,” as Wong puts it. Get out into nature. Listen to your thoughts. And follow your intuition — even if it seems aimless.

🍃 More from Forge on finding solace in nature:

How To Make The Most Out of Your Time in Nature
Read more >>

A Long Walk Can Change Everything
Read more >>

Get Outside, No Matter What the Weather
Read more >>

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Amy Shearn
Forge

Formerly: Editor of Creators Hub, Human Parts // Ongoingly: Novelist, Essayist, Person