Hiking Away From CostCo

I made a major shift in my life about eight years ago. I went from living the American Dream to living my own dream.

I had been a house-owning, credit using, consumer of goods from all the major big box store buying, individual, to a cash or debit card only renting spend-thrift.

I cleaned out and closed down the storage unit filled with ladders and fire pits and outdated furniture and rugs and kids toys and appliances and opened my agenda to hike and bike and generally be outdoors more often.

I haven’t looked back since.

I’m not saying I can walk into any Home Depot or Bed, Bath, & Beyond, or Costco and be completely free of coveting the merchandise. But I am saying I walk into those stores a whole lot less often and walk out of them with a whole lot less merchandise as well.

This is because I used to walk into them looking to “fill up” with something that would make the emptiness of that day seem less cavernous. Now I am filled by nature instead. The myriad of green on shrubs and trees, sunlight on my skin, the physical exertion of a challenging hike are filling me instead.

These deliver a special offer every day, require no restocking when I leave and don’t have a check out counter or membership card.

I wonder, at times, how did we humans, as a race, get so far away from the simple pleasures of nature?

My thirteen year old melts into the experience, but only after much coercion and the withholding of electronic devices to get him there, kicking and screaming. I worry a little about this.

Most of us live in cities and cities are that much more removed from true nature paths…places where the greenery outnumbers the buildings per square mile. With a lack of natural paths to follow, and with an abundance of big box paths calling us at every ad impression, how will we remember that the emptiness of life is best filled without consuming goods?

Rather, by seeing there’s a whole lot more out there than we could ever contain in our home. The answers are inside ourselves…but the questions are out there somewhere. I here this is becoming more popular with a lot of people…hope so.

What do I do when I need a ladder or fire pit? Borrow one…believe it or not, entire neighborhoods could get by on one ladder for years. Just think of all the nature we’d save! Am I alone out here? Anyone else traded in their mall excursions for trekking in the wild…even just a little wild? Please let me know…we can loan each other ladders and stuff.