I saw this as a heading in a Florida newspaper 30 years ago – and how the same sentiment must resonate with a lot of people today!

Over the last two years I have heard many stories of economic hardship: one elderly lady told me she cried for a week when she lost her savings in bank shares. Our heart-felt best wishes must go out to her and to the many others caught up in this extraordinary down-turn of events.

In third world countries poverty and conservation are locked in a deadly struggle. But it is a novel experience for more developed countries. For many caught up in this grim reality holding steady until circumstances change is the only option.

Visiting national parks and wild areas will not pay the bills. But in walking or hiking through such places people can discover and unexpected and sympathetic friend in nature. Such places can ease a person’s frame of mind by helping them to unravel some of their jumbled thinking that may be pressing down on them. It can allow them to see their situation as a lighter load than they might at first have thought. Wilderness areas can help clean the mind of clawing details of no importance. Hiking in such areas can give a person space to better evaluate what is truly important in their life. What seems insurmountable in a busy city can be rationalized and reduced in an ancient forest or on a mountain track, the rocks beneath your feet millions of years old. In such surroundings people can find that they can snap out of their self-absorption: they can accept life whatever their circumstance and get on with living.

If you are one of the many who now find themselves in an unsettling economic circumstance then by allowing nature in such places to meet you in your distress – you can discover that there is benefit in that.

I hope that what I have expressed here is of help to some.

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