Wandering in woods: free time, meditation, and meanings of life

Photographed by Hardy Liang

If I had a free weekend, I would like to take a walk to a forest and think about philosophy. Like many adolescents, I get tired of being dominated by how others expect us to achieve. The trend of defining academic and financial success as one’s life-long pursuit is so overwhelming. Much to its surprise, it encounters an obstacle when it urges to overpower the green, vibrant hill of forest. What a great space for lively, unfettered thoughts! I’d walk into the forest, slowly, lightly, without any footsteps. The voice lying deeply beneath my heart would speak with pleasure: to leave the blow of trend behind, to run away from its shadow, to explore various meaningful values.

Walking amidst the endless trees, listening to the breeze blowing over the leaves, seeing the setting sun until the night sky falls. The forest would become darker but I’d still be willing to explore it, as if walking into a mysterious inner world. The trees in the forest would not be as strong as I expected. Their trunks would be uneven, and the bizarre shapes of their branches would be so natural and irregular that I’d consider how unconstrained my thoughts would be if they could grow as naturally as those branches. I’d think about what connections between ideas could be made like the intersection of twigs and why there aren’t any new perspectives in regards to the existing concepts as various shapes of branches intertwined with each other forming a mesh of woven twigs.

Walking in the forest would awaken the voice within my heart and inspire me to contemplate the existing values in various perspectives. Exploring the forest along with interacting with my inner voice would encourage me to reappraise these current concepts, values, and rules. If I had a free weekend, these experiences would enable me to better answer the question: What values do I hold that make my life meaningful?