Resilient Seeker Coaching | Ross Raymond Nunamaker

“Well, I’ve made up my mind, anyway. I want to see mountains again, Gandalf – mountains;”

He paused, silent for a moment. Then without another word he turned away from the flights and voices in the fields and tents, and followed by his three companions went round into his garden, and trotted down the long sloping path. He jumped over a low place in the hedge at the bottom, and took to the meadows, passing into the night like a rustle of wind in the grass.

Many fans of Tolkien enjoy how nature is presented in his works.

I’ve always liked the way it was depicted and the detail he provided allowed me to ‘see’ it. Ironically, with many younger readers some of the major complaints are in regard to his pacing and description, combined with his nostalgia for a pastoral past.

This past year I’ve placed an emphasis on my health, and as a part of that I wanted to walk more. Since I could only walk the same streets in my small town so many times, I decided to try a new trail or section of trail nearby each weekend, weather contingent.

This past weekend I went on my second hike. I’m fortunate in that I’m a twenty minute car ride to the Appalachian Trail.

Walking on the trail, while I was focused on each step, as it was very rocky, also let my mind drift. 

I felt like I’d entered the Perilous Realm. There were no other people, I was on the trail for three hours and passed one small group and one single person in the first 30 minutes and then no one.

It was shortly after sunrise, my favorite time to walk or hike, when the sun was breaking through the trees. On a cool morning the clouds of mist may be yielding to the bright sun.

The songs of birds and occasional rustling of leaves from the scurrying of squirrels were most common. The creaking of tree branches and swift movement of a startled deer happen at times, but not too often.

It was reported that nature reconnects us to the present, and helps us rest and recover mentally and emotionally.

We see this in Tolkien’s works. Bilbo craved it, the Hobbits enjoyed it until encountering the Black Rider, and Tom Bombadil and Beorn epitomized being in tune with nature, each in their own way. Radagast became lost in it.

For me as I was walking, I imagined a life when this trail, sometimes a challenge to discern let alone traverse, would be a daily encounter for a Ranger of the North, or akin to Boromir’s journey north to find Rivendell.

The trail was similar in all directions most of the time, but there were times the next set of mountains were visible through the trees and when an opening came the view was breathtaking.

Despite feeling that my part of the world had become overgrown with progress (another familiar theme) when looking out I experienced the “small-self”, the diminished sense of self, coupled with the feeling of connectedness to something greater.

Looking out, I saw the tops of trees, lakes, and another mountain beyond. I went from my daily zoom perspective to a wide angle panoramic view of the world.

This same feeling is what I get when reading Tolkien. The pace and pastoral longing of the writing may be from an older time and different age, but it presents the picture that is often overlooked in our hyper focused world.

So there and back again, “I want to see mountains again, Gandalf – mountains;”