Gone Caching. Back Later.

Summer is upon us. We have the light of the sun until well past the "normal" 6:30pm dinner time. I'm reminded of how much my body and biology is governed by the natural rhythms and cycles of the world beyond my little air conditioned space. Every summer dinner gets pushed back later and later until one evening I realize that it's not being served until 9 o'clock at night. I prepare dinner when I feel hungry for dinner and I'm not hungry at 6:30. Instead, I am hungry when nature's light begins to fade. No matter how much I try to discipline my body and control my schedule, I'm simply not hungry at what is considered a "reasonable" dinner time. Even if I force myself to eat at the so-called decent hour my stomach is growling as the sun is setting. Personally, I figure Mother Nature knew what She was doing when She built that little when-to-eat-instinct into me so I go with it - much to the dismay of certain parental and grandmotherly types in my life.

Such a realization drives home the importance of Mother Earth and Father Sky in managing mental illness. I need to work with them. Get outside into the full-spectrum light provided by our sun instead of that provided by the special bulbs I bought for my lamps. Breathe the fresher air beyond my front door instead of the recirculated air around me right now. Put my feet on the ground instead of the foundation of my house, a concrete sidewalk, or the black pavement of a road. I have a million reasons to not do those things. It's hot. The sun's too bright. I'll get all sweaty. I'll get a sunburn. I don't want to get off the sofa. I'm watching a movie. I'll go later.

Yesterday I pushed myself into the great outdoors. A handful of fellow explorers and I set out on a trek into town and beyond. Our mission: to find caches. The planned geocaching route was a little overly optimistic and was edited a few times along the way. Our fearless tracker took point with the intention of finding 26 hidden treasures. 26. Four miles and an hour and a half into the trip we finally stepped off the concrete and onto the trail through a nature preserve. Deer. Butterflies. Lavender. Cactus. Trees. Scattered throughout were all the caches we were to locate with GPS coordinates, a few hints provided by the person who hid the items in the first place, a little creative thinking, and some keen eyesight. We are terrible geocachers apparently. Twenty-six?! Not a chance and I knew that from the beginning, but I thought we would do better than two. Ten miles and five hours and all we found were two caches.

Was the time wasted? Not at all. We had a good time. I slept better last night than I have in quite a while. As I'm writing this I am realizing that anxiety has not crept up on me today. Mother Earth and Father Sky were good to me yesterday and I feel better today. I'm grateful.

BTW,
Geocaching - The Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site