Best Self Magazine

A Walk On The Wild Side: Nature as Therapy

View of sunset from atop Cadillac Mountain; photograph by Celeste Orr
Cadillac Mountain at sunset. All photographs by Celeste Orr.

One woman’s search for emotional healing guides her outside her own doorstep into the embrace of Mother Nature

I’m a wife and a mom. I buy groceries, give hugs, cook meals, plan adventures, scrub floors, and wash dishes. I’m also a writer and I homeschool my teenagers, and for the past two and a half years I’ve been trying to work remotely full-time, travel with my family full-time, homeschool full-time, manage a full-time graduate school schedule, and start my own business. To say it’s been too much is putting it mildly.

I knew it was too much for anyone to handle (apart from Captain Marvel or Superwoman perhaps, neither of which am I anything like), but I told myself it was temporary – a necessary evil in a season of necessary transition. Still, it’s been too much for too long, and I feel myself breaking and barreling towards burnout.

I’m in the process of untangling myself from the

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