conceptualized. I could now ‘be with’ the wind as it traveled through the jungle, just as the trees did—simply swaying in its presence with nothing to do but be. Whenever sitting around a fire, I no longer just saw its flames; instead, I could ‘be with’ its essence, feeling its warmth wrap around me like an embrace, its flickering dance speaking a

being in Nature evoked a feeling of belonging to something bigger, opening a pathway to a spiritual connection with the Cosmos that transcended the passage of time.