It's not quite that bad, there is some green, there are even trees, as much as most cities, I guess, although what gets to me is there is a lack of a proper natural forest. There's one area that's not all that far, but it's nearly impossible for me to get too as it's too far to walk and there isn't any other way to get there other than drive :(. I've been to a few areas of forest, but they are relatively far away and it was before Avatar, and I didn't have quite the same appreciation.

sounds amazing, glad you enjoyed it.

^^^^ yes - and it goes for so many things. One won't know what the sea is, even tho one reads hundreds of books about seas - until one just gets to a sea! And feels the salty smell, the breeze, the waves, the ingravity when you're in it... the power and the endlessness of it...
Or even simpler: a taste of a strawberry. HOW to explain the taste of a strawberry to someone who never ever tried it? Try it - that's the only way.....

The sense of nature was taken away from us long time ago after the industrializing of all things, we are taking it back !

@ apache_blanca : everytime I leave the seaside I get very sad. Everytime I leave mountainside I get very sad. But I'm also optimistic that I was feeling the energy out there, a feeling that will never leave me. Who knows how long we can enjoy with all the faysawtute which are cutting and digging everything for profit and short term interests... :(

KalTXI Tsawke ´Iheyu-
to think about it, the massive industrialization started in the 20-s of the past XXth century. Add maybe a half of the XIX century. So it has not been that long, but look at the change! :( Scary, eh. But about to "take back the sense of nature" - better late than never! On the other side, I believe for some reason that Earth was more like Pandora before, and maybe even our ancestors were able to see something similar to bioluminiscence: Don Juan, a yaqui shaman from The Teachings of Don Juan, talks all the time about the "colours of the world", "the energy lines between everything", and that in fact people look like "shining eggs" - for those who can SEE. I am sure we were able to SEE before, how come we lost it? If we didn't maybe we would care more about our beautiful planet! Maybe the reason for this loss was survival - or maybe just greed for material stuff? I.e. looking the other way...

People often view me as a pathological optimist, but I am probably sounding right on the contrary when I say: "Hm... I just pray we still have the time to reverse the tide!"

And then again, I'd support myself in Don Juan's Teachings and try to be "a good warrior doing my best in any situation - and leaving the rest to the Force"...

i love it! thanks for posting this Hunter of the Glade

Kaltxì. :)

It's a sin we were born with, a sin rooted since the early human days. To consume for his own and forget the real meaning of life, to price the spiritual things, the gift that was given to us. Once fallen in the sin, human evolved and lost track of time. Once fighting against the sin, human can regain the mighty things. It's not a wasted time to restart being one with our Mother as we once did, you know "wasted time is not wasted" :D

True, I support Don Juan's sayings, very obvious and brings heads-up :)

http://img807.imageshack.us/img807/595/p4030043.jpg
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/6246/p4030058q.jpg

Here are two of the pictures I took on Sunday when I left the town to mountainside with a very good friend of mine. It was awesome to breathe the mountain fresh air and to share thoughts about nature and all-mighty things with a friend :) I was also feeling a great energy, just like when you go home and leave it forever then want to remain, after that I told him : "Oh, how much I want to remain here and get going on with my life here..." :'( I hate this city !!! :(

Location : Carpathian Mountains.

KalTXí again :)
agree on this one. I see it this way too - the greed blinded us. Now that we know the reason... we can reopen our eyes again! Globally - and/or individually. Everyone makes one's free choice.

About sins... In summer I saw an old TV program (maybe from the 80-s) about a tribe in the Amazonas that live just like the Na'vi (I posted it on AF). One phrase hit me: "These people are the true children of the Nature. They live in paradise. This is how we lived, too, until we commited the sin of abusing of the Nature..." So so true!

oh goody of course not wasted ! I am rather taken aback imagining anybody could think this way, but, truly - yes, there are people, and many, who chose to "see" this way... or rather to live with closed eyes... But heck, who am I to judge, I choose to see - that's my free choice :)

I learnt A LOT from Don Juan. I even made peace with the Death :shock:still have to reread some books, it's good to be reminded sometimes.

(pictures)
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Beautiful pics! And great to have a friend to be able to freely share this feelings with... And to be sensitive enough to feel the energy... It's such a gift, sometimes we should reappreciate it, that's really lucky. So many people don't feel/have it...

This goes for the Hunter and HNM, too: thanks to these kind of threads/posts here on ToS I got inspired to escape to the forest as much as I can, even better - barefoot. I was PAD-ish for 2 days, and the forest gave me some healthy "grounding" (literally :) & metaphorically too). I was all thunderballs & lightnings (very very frightening!) but I felt so much better after this walk...

till next one, *waves*


@HNM: "Going barefoot" is YOUR thread so don't tell me you're not doing enough! It matters to ME at least!

How to become a na'vi; the cure to Avatar Emptiness.

Personally my favorite thread on AF.
This was the one thing that inspired me to do all of this, including my short film.
Hell, my short film is pretty much based on this thread entirely.

I do it always when I can :) I don't have a walkman altho I DID get finally the Avatar CD, but it doesn't matter cos the music is always in my head anyway :) and if you silence your thoughts you can hear Eywa's speaking!

Indeed! Anyone else getting major goosebumps when a good song plays in your head?

It's awesome :D

Definitely. There are only a few songs that do it, but the Avatar soundtrack has some of those :)

Some of it makes me so sad though... it makes me dream of Pandora and wish I was there :'(

Ah, HNM, you really should find a way to get out of the city. It is a depressing place. Whenever I have to go into the city, I feel like entering a dungeon, a labyrinth. There are all those people that I do my best to ignore, because I cannot really have any connection with all of them. Sometimes I get slight panic feelings, too. I do not know where you live, but don't they have buses or local trains you could use to get out of the city? Even if you have to sit in a train for 20 minutes or 30 and then walk a bit - I am sure it is worth it. Or take a bike. It does not even have to be a forest really - if your area has other things, like a free flowing river, a undisturbed coastline, rolling hills of natural grassland - they also have the same kind of "spirit" to it. I lived in Colorado for a year - that place has trees only in valleys with tivers, a lot of the other places are dry. But it was majestic to be there in this landscape. Even moreso maybe was it when I was in Africa - a thornbush savannah - only very few trees and most of them actually large succulents, not really trees. But again being there was majestic and magic. Suddenly a springbok or a giant spider is in front of you or a beautiful colored locust. Or you stumble over some rocks and stop and as you look ahead you see a sheep that has just given birth to a lamb. Ok that one was also a bit embarassing and I walked backwards away from it, but it still is beautiful. Or the sky - the night sky with the stars when looked at from a place that is truely distant from articifial light. I never saw a night sky tha beautiful as in Africa - I think there probably are no places in central Europe that can reach that, but one can try.
What I agree with is that even the forests and rivers in Europe are sadly most often "influenced" in that the forests are only small leftovers of grand forests, or they are planted forests (tree farms). And rivers are often managed or artificially "renaturated". I like these places still, but emotionally and maybe spiritually they are less satisfying than more "pristine" landscapes and sometimes I feel some sorrow or sadness from them. But, living here right now, I will go to the places that are here.. :D

Oh and one fascinating point in that soundtrack-thingy is, if you put the sound in your ears while driving or walking up to the place you want to go that is remote enough and then when you're there shut it off and listen to the sounds that are naturally there (given these are not roads or chainsaws or something like that). It is a bit like putting out the fire and suddenly the bioluminescence comes up...

Love your analogy to bioluminescence. You're exactly right on that.

Speaking of, I hope to visit the forest during the warm months to come when the fireflies are out at night...that would be awesome.

The one unusual and somewhat eerie concept about being out in the nature is the fact that you surprisingly don't feel alone out there. You definitely feel a flow of energy between yourself and the world around you - a deep connection to the forest.

Hehe - yeah indeed it is interesting. People often say they want to go somewhere alone, like on a hike or walk. And certainly such times provide the opportunity to think about some things, be in ones own mind and dealing with that. But also what people often really mean is they want to be alone with nature. Like being left alone with a lover maybe or a good friend. To perceive and feel the living world unaltered and undisturbed by other humans who are all around us all the time.
Most of the things we deal with daily are human. The place we live in, the transport to work, the workplace, the machines and computers there, the images on the screens and the videos on TV when we come back home, the talk to human friends and the cooked food from the supermarket. Few things are not altered, or kept behind the glass of the bus we drive by the living landscape. So we miss the communication with nonhuman beings, even if it is just the water falling down in a rain or the fresh air, but certainly living plants and animals - We need those perceptual nonverbal communications that connect us to the larger planetary organism. If we do not have them, we simply go crazy or dull and depressed. I think it is no coincidence that with the increasing urbanization and self-entombment of people the occurence of seemingly unforseeable violence increases as well as the disrespect for human and nonhuman others. Only if humans already are distanced from these others by the way they live, they are able to do these horrible things to others, not feeling the emotional, spiritual and physical impact they have due to the disconnection that is prevailing.

There's actually a forest just about nearby (a long walk away), but it isn't great, it's clearly not a real or old one and all the trees are the same. I still had a walk there yesterday though :)
I've seen the night sky in Africa too before, though, and that was one of my favourite views ever. There were so many stars... each one of those, possibly has life. It made me happy :)