The Singing Wilderness

One of the requirements of the adult summer reading program is to read a classic.  There is no requirement that the classic be fiction, so I chose Sigurd Olson's The Singing Wilderness, which is listed as one of the top ten environmental classic by the Sierra Club.  Along with John Muir, Aldo Leopold and Henry David Thoreau, Olson wrote of the joy of nature and fought to protect some of the most beautiful places on the planet. He lived a long life canoeing and hiking in the lake country in the north of Minnesota and was instrumental in creating Voyageurs' National Park along the boundary with Canada

The singing wilderness is where we hear the sounds that are drowned out by urban life:  the calling of the birds, the roaring of rapids, even in the crackling of an open fire or the patter of rain on a tent. 

"Because of our almost forgotten past there is a restlessness within us, an impatience with things as they are, which modern life with its comforts and distractions does not seem to satisfy.  We sense intuitively that there must be something more, search for panaceas we hope will give us a sense of reality days and nights with such activity and our minds with such busyness that there is little time to think.  When the pace stops we are often lost, and we plunge once more into the maelstrom hoping that if we move fast enough, somehow we may fill the void within us." 

This is why Gary and I must get away to all that is wild as often as we can.  Here at Laura Lake we can watch the nuthatches and woodpeckers, we can argue with red squirrels, we can observe the pace of the wildflowers. Gary has no plans to return to Seymour until the Labor Day weekend.  I will be with him as often as I can during that period, and come September, I will be camping on my own in the Upper Peninsula.

Our friends the Battens have had a whirlwind of activity as they visit waterfalls, campgrounds, and lakes.  We enjoy their enthusiasm, but we are living a slower pace.  We have seen all their finds already.  They are still working folk and must fit it all into a week or two.  We are retired so we simply allow the beauty to slip into our souls.