I am at Green Haven, a naturist campground/community that is my home club. I have the opportunity to spend eight days at this site, engaged in a writing retreat, a skyclad writing retreat. I am rewriting the final book of my autobiography. I have pulled the old version off of bookshelves in various stores and have consigned more than a hundred copies of the book to the recycle bin. The old version was more of a soap opera badly written and acted out. My hopes are that the rewrite will be worthy of being read. Speaking of soap operas, I found this quote of interest this afternoon.
“We are, after all, the only constant character in that long-running soap opera we call our life. Therefore, it might well be argued that we are somehow accountable for how it is turning out.” [James Hollis, Living an Examined Life]
I’ve started reading a new book in my collection, Living an Examined Life, by James Hollis, a Jungian analyst I deeply respect. He never talks about naturism, at least not in his published body of work which is considerable. He focuses on the journey that each of us takes through life as individuals. For me, that journey includes naturism. As I wrote many times over the years, naturism has been instrumental in making me a better, saner person. And as such, I do less damage to the world and the people around me.
I opened this new book on my second full day at Green Haven Sun Club in southern Saskatchewan as I took a break from my current writing project, a rewrite of book three in the Broken Road series. In that writing, I can follow the slow evolution from being damaged goods to a man who now respects himself. In that story of evolution, nudity and naturism plays a large role.
“… for each of us to recover for that which abides deeply within … we will not be spared disappointment of suffering, but we will know the depth and dignity of an authentic journey, of being a real player in our brief moment on this turning planet … on the journey of the soul.”
Is naturism a journey, an authentic journey? Or, is it an acting out of a dysfunctional psyche, the mark of someone who is no more than a deviant? Of course, in my opinion – and it is my journey – I am on a personal pilgrimage of sorts, a journey that demands much of me. The only way to find the energy and will to walk this journey is to find places and spaces in time to recharge through being fully vulnerable to the planet and the sky that surrounds the Earth – skyclad.
For each of the past two days I have walked ten kilometres without the need for clothing. The sun shone, the traffic on the country grid road was absent, and the longer dirt road showed little evidence of recent use. I owned the road and the dirt trail. I carried a hiking wrap which I could put on if a vehicle began to approach. After all, the hiking wasn’t meant to challenge others with my nudity. Luckily, there was no need to put the wrap on and the two hour hike became just myself, the earth, a few wild deer, the sky, and the glorious sun. I knew that I was engaged in a real “journey of the soul.”
I will try to follow-up with more from Hollis’ new book in future posts. I won’t rush the reading of the book as I have the feeling that what is to be found there will deserve a fuller attention that can only come with being read in bite-sized pieces. For now, I return to living without clothing during my stay at Green Haven.
A wonderful journey of mind and body.