Loving Walden and Reading The Hobbit
Sketching at Starkey Park in Early November
This month I’ve found myself reading The Hobbit while contemplating the nature of adventure and connection to my own landscape (my “Walden” being Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis). It has been an interesting collision of thoughts.
Heroic stories typically follow certain plot lines, and one of the first plot lines, early on in a story, is the “call to adventure.” If you’ve read The Hobbit you are familiar with Gandalf’s visit to Bilbo Baggins (the hobbit) and the call to go with the dwarves on an important adventure. When the call comes there is a choice to be made to accept or reject it.
Have you ever considered the idea that choosing to go out on a nature walk, or taking time for a hike in your local park, is answering the call to adventure? I know the call comes to me almost daily. At that point, the next part of the plot line kicks in: resisting the call.
Bilbo thought twice about answering the call. After all, a life spent quietly at home sipping tea and munching on elevenses was much more Bilbo’s tempo. Sometimes I find it’s mine too. And the thought of gathering coats, hats, gloves, proper footgear, and braving the cooling temperatures does not seem like an adventure.
The Hobbit reminded me that sometimes answering the call to adventure can be a gamble — you don’t know the outcome when you set off, and though there may be the promise of a prize at the end, one’s “safety” is not guaranteed. Translating this to my life here in the very plain and simple Midwest, I face similar types of adventure predicaments but they play out differently.
Some days the call to adventure (get out in nature, hike a new trail, or go to a favorite Sit Spot) feels overwhelming. Inside my cozy Hobbit Hole I reason against the temperature, the weather, my lack of energy or my dismal mood. Adventure does not seem to be for me today. The call of nature and the temptation of comfort war within me. (Sometimes comfort, rightly, wins.)
If I can let my soul be captivated by a few notes of nature’s song, as Bilbo was captivated when the song of the Dwarves transcended the little Hobbit Hole into timeless and spell-casting spaces, then I will most surely answer the call to adventure, even if it is a begrudging “yes.”
Rare is the time when I’ve been drawn into a nature adventure and regretted it. Oh they aren’t all outings to write home about. I don’t see eagles or owls every time I go to Eagle Creek. Nonetheless, the reward always seems to come: in a bright flash of a bluebird, or the way the muted colors line the reservoir, or the renewal that comes to my mind. By answering the call I’ve set myself in the path of a time that will no doubt be ripe with wonder, curiosity, and beauty.
The next time you think about going out to spend time in nature, think of yourself as answering the call to adventure! You may encounter challenges but the plot line always continues on in the story from resistance to moments of transformation and renewal.