Through a Naturist Lens

In a world that is structured around community, there are no real individual rights. Relationships are about negotiation. I will give you this freedom, if you give up that freedom. We don’t have the right to anything, even life. Once one realises that one isn’t owed anything, one can begin to navigate the world with more safety and sanity. Though I was born naked, I don’t have the expectation that I will be able to live naked in a community that is shared by others. Of…

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Just weeks before I returned with my wife to teach in a university in China, I found myself needing to escape from the confines of my clothing. It had been a hard summer, issues with my aging and dying mother who was being stubborn. I knew that before I could return to Canada after another year teaching Education classes in China, my mother would die. She knew it and I knew it. I so desperately wanted answers to questions that…

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My first recollection of being naked in a nature setting came from when I was thirteen with the scene having me at a dugout out in the Alberta countryside with three other boys. I was the last to discard my protective layer of shorts. As the new boy in town, I knew that I either became like them or I would remain isolated. Little did I know that something deep within me had been ignited, a way to be in…

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The original version of this post appeared in June, 2011 not long after I returned with my wife from our third year of teaching in a Chinese university in a city about three hours from Shanghai. As I wander through my older posts which first existed on a blog site called Through a Jungian Lens, I am finding that there are a surprising number that included the idea of naturism. And posts such as this one which appears with a…

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Why did I choose this photo taken many years ago?  Why did I even take it back then? It was my first intentional self-portrait that dared to challenge my self-identity but that wasn’t the reason. The truth is, I don’t know why I took it, nor did I know why back then. It just happened, what can best be described as a “what the hell did I just do?” act. Despite what all previous photos had told the world about…

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I know, the title sounds offensive. How could I even resort to using words such as this? I mean, this is supposed to be a place where I calmly and dispassionately look at the human psyche, both personal and collective, with a view to allowing others to “perhaps” have an “ah-ha” moment where and when my words strike a sense of confirmed awareness. After all, I know that no one else has ever convinced another person through “reason” to change…

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Know thyself.  I had lived a busy life as a teacher and as a school administrator. Raising three children with my wife and doing my part in the community, filled up all of my waking hours. I was a successful teacher, a good father, a dependable member of the community, and somehow I thought I had it all figured out. However, like almost everyone else, my ego didn’t really have a clue as I made the shift from believing I…

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I am on the upper outside balcony at Casa Valdivia which we have rented for almost three months in this photo taken on the third. We didn’t realise it when we had moved up our time in Olón, but we would have to leave Ecuador for a number of days or else end up with a huge fine for exceeding 90 days within the country. The casa is huge, a two-storey affair with three bedrooms on the upper level with…

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We were staying at the Hosteria Isramar where we checked in on Christmas Eve. I got sick for the last few days while there which kept me close to the Hosteria for the most part, as well as the beach which was about fifty metres away. The image was taken before we moved to our new location, a house/casa which will be our home for three months. The hosteria had a rooftop lounge which I dared to use for a…

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We are in Olon and had supper at a beach-side restaurant last night . The motel that we are staying at until we move into our long-term rental is actually quite nice and the owners are even nicer. Our first real photo of Olon is of us just past sunset while the colours were still rich in the air. Today we got out to walk on the beach and then around this small town. I have a feeling that we’re…

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