Usually in April we remember how kind the Earth is to us and how much we love nature. Speaking of which, it’s time to keep a recent promise and tell another hiking story.
I go back in time and here I am as a child.
When April comes, mom and I pack our backpacks and rush forward – to nature. At that time, I found nature beautiful, but extremely dangerous.
While the group enjoys fabulous views, I may be in a poetic mood, but I don’t get carried away. I’m sure there’s a bloodthirsty bear lurking around watching my every step.
We may be in the paradise of fairytale landscapes, but another movie is playing in my childhood head. In it, the bear has quickly got to me, has already eaten me, they are burying me with brass music and two pictures. The first – naturally mine. The second – to the bear that so unceremoniously mowed down my life before its essential part had even begun. I am just drifting into the great piece that the orchestra is playing in my honor, when suddenly the conductor interrupts the wild gallop of my fancy. Announces a short break. We stop. Food stocks attract me like a magnet. I quickly swallow a dozen darlings. Anyway, I have a bear, apocalypse, brass music… At least I can meet them well fed.
In the following hours, instead of the dramas I expected, joy, beauty, fresh air, April snow in the mountains happen. That’s how we get to the final skating. It’s steep.
I watch carefully as the others descend on the frozen pebbles. I stop grumbling the moment I realize there’s no way I’m going to be out here alone in the middle of nowhere with the whole group gloriously pulling down. It will be completely dark soon. Who knows where that bear is, who in his sweet dreams sees me in solid portions …. Maybe in his mind I figure on a tray of natural material, with a lemon in his mouth and pine branches artistically thrown at me. For color and luxury. He must be somewhere around, hurrying, hurrying towards me. Then I make a firm and bold decision. I sit on my bum on the rocks and imagine I’m on an ice rink. The group, which takes at least ten to fifteen minutes to reach the discreet path, watches my dizzy descent, dumbfounded with surprise. A minute, no more. Super risky, but at the same time short and with a successful ending. The bear is fooled, I land at the feet of my stunned companions and…I will live.
Today I look at all this in a completely different way and I am infinitely grateful to my mother, who, without paying attention to my eternal childish mumbling, showed me a whole amazing world. A world that fascinates every moment with its lovely pictures, embraces with the scent of pine trees, gives us the freedom of its intoxicating air, welcomes us with the smiling faces of the flowers, adds mood with the fluffy white clouds that cheerfully chase the sky and playfully change shapes you are A world that impresses with every detail – from the mystical sound of echoes rolling across the moors to the sweet aroma of wild blueberries.
Today is Earth Day. She deserves our love and care. Every touch with nature brings a feeling of happiness. We have this incredible wealth.
It is an easy matter to preserve and cherish it.
Only then will we be able to enjoy it year after year, generation after generation.
Author: Daniela Ivanova
