Through a Naturist Lens

As usual, I was up to greet the day while it was still dark out. As I was sitting by the fireplace nursing my second cup of coffee I saw the sky gradually begin to lighten. And then I saw a sliver of the moon with the rest of the moon barely visible in shadow. There was no mistaking that what I saw was the whole circular surface of the moon and that retaught me that though one can’t see something, it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. That’s not an easy lesson for those who can only believe what they see.

Too many are imprisoned with their handbag filled with their incontrovertible truths. If their five primary senses don’t align with what is clutched desperately as fundamental truth, then it is obviously false. When the senses tell someone one story and science tells them a different story, science generally is set aside. Though not everyone sees, hears, smells, tastes, or feels the same, meaning that their sensory input cannot be trusted, does not deter them from fervently believing otherwise.

Yet, there is a back door for truths to be embedded, through the subconscious. Advertising and mass media, and trusted groups such as religions, repeat messages to the point where the messages are then held as truths. Tell a lie often enough, then it is held closely as a personal and collective truth.

So what does this have to do with naturism? Everything. People gravitate to naturism because of a number of reasons including sensory pleasure. However, most don’t. The power of the collective unconscious that has been pummelled with negative imaging for centuries upon centuries, is enormous. Should one see a nude human, the first response is surprise, then fear, and then anger. That initial response can be broken down over time for some people. And that, is the motivation for the #NormalisingNaturism movement.

And just a footnote: Yes, the temperature was below freezing this morning when I took this photo. For many this would too much for their senses to handle. For myself, it wasn’t unpleasant in the least as there was no wind. Different bodies, different responses to the same stimuli.

The paperback copies of the last three books published have finally arrived and been added to my bookshelf. This book, Déjà Vu was one of my NaNoWriMo projects from a few years back. The book is naturist fiction, and as the title might indicate, it is quite tied in with Celtic mythology in a modern context. It isn’t my latest naturist novel, however. That honour goes to a book currently in the process of being published, a book I have talked about in one of my previous posts in October.

The other two books are a social history story of an immigrant from the Ukraine to Canada, a story that took place 100 years ago; and a middle-grades chapter book, set in the near future in Europe.

Needless to say, their arrival bodes for an auspicious start to a long winter, hopefully an productive winter as far as my current works-in-progress are concerned.

It’s Halloween, or as it is also known, Samhain. The sun is shining and it is quite cool this morning. I woke up to -10 and then went for a decent hike in the countryside once the temperature soared to -6 Celsius while it was still morning. I want to be home for the early afternoon appearance of little people in search of Halloween treats. Of course, when they come I will be wearing clothing as I do want to continue living in our town and not taking up valuable space in some jail cell which is needed for real criminals.

Typically, the day signals the imminent arrival of NaNoWriMo. However, unlike past years, I won’t be attempting the challenge. I have other priorities for the month of November including the release of my latest naturist-fiction novel, Aliens Among Us, a book that is now on pre-order at Amazon [click here to add your name to the list]. The print version of the book will follow shortly after November 15th. The cover for the novel was designed and executed by Fabien Barabé, an artist from Nova Scotia, Canada.

I have just started another novel that will be space oriented, something that is completely different from any of my past novels. This story will take quite some time to develop as I am hoping to get input from a certain grandson in terms of story line and expected conflicts. I will get to spend some time with him in late November and again in mid December. Once those two meetings are done, I will spend more time on the story.

Until then, I am eighty percent through the rewrite of a non-fiction book that tells a number of micro-stories of marriage to the same woman for fifty years. I am hoping to have the story edited before Christmas so that our children and grandchildren can have their copies as Christmas presents. So, as you can see, there is no time for a focused NaNoWriMo adventure.

Now, with all that said, my words return to Halloween and Samhain. The intent going back centuries, if not longer, is about marking a transition. Days are getting shorter here on the prairies north of the 49th parallel, and nights are getting longer. Frost is becoming more and more of the norm, a sign that the big deep freeze of winter is on the horizon. There will be less and less opportunity for me to be out in nature while nude though not a decrease in the amount of time I spend clothing free. It is a time for transitioning from a life lived in the outer world, to a more contemplative time.

I woke up in darkness, a normal thing this time of year on the Canadian prairies. At some point during the night, a light rain shower had happened. Unlike yesterday when I woke up to minus temperatures, today was a balmy +7 Celsius. I have to admit it, I couldn’t resist experiencing the smell and feel of moisture in the air. I took out my good camera and tripod to attempt capturing an image to mark this moment. Some of you might know that we are in the midst of a drought and there is no end in sight.

There is no doubt that drought affects the mental well-being of a person. People become more anxious and irritable, less resilient to the local, regional and global challenges that assault them via mass media and social media. People become listless and angry. These responses to drought are the same whether the drought is weather related, relationship related, work related, or about a dry spell in one’s creative endeavours.

I am one of the lucky ones. I am older and have no worries about my future. I know that I am on the slippery slope that will only end with my becoming a memory. It almost is a relief as it allows me to feel I have more freedom to do what I really want to do – within reason of course, after all, I do live in a community and there are laws.

As a writer, I have experienced creative droughts, some of which lasted longer than I would have preferred. I still experience droughts but they don’t seem to last as long. It only takes a tiny crack in the drought, such as last night’s brief shower, for me to rush in and allow the ideas to come to life. I am more willing to take risks with my writing, and for some reason I begin to believe that my writing is getting better because of it.

The summer season in the northern hemisphere is done and many of us are resisting as much as possible, the descent into the darker season of winter. Days are getting shorter and the temperature is dropping. In summer, the community of those who embrace clothes-free living as much as practically possible, posted many images of themselves [myself included] to the online community. Yoga outdoors, hiking outdoors, nature scenes, gardening scenes, social scenes – you name it, we took the pictures and shared them. During the past 18 months the pandemic made the online community a vital piece of finding ways to remain sane and feeling less alone and isolated. 

Like others, I created an image this morning to add to the community. Being a thick-skinned Canadian, I can tolerate cooler temperatures better than many others, so I attempt to do “normal” things outdoors as much as possible. Indoors, I live nude unless we have visitors or it is mealtime. Dressing up for a meal is de rigeur.

So what is it about images we post of ourselves while being nude? Is it exhibitionism? Is there some thought that doing so will somehow give us friends or potentially a mate? Is it a sign of a personality disorder? To be honest, there is no one right answer. There are exhibitionists, narcissists, friend-starved individuals, and those needing psychotherapy in the crowd. However, for the most part, most are just normal people who are confident enough in themselves to risk engaging with others who share similar values. Each person is unique.

For those within the community, uniqueness is honoured. No one bothers to judge others for choices made, whether BIPOC, the LGBT+ community, conservatives and liberals, religious and non-religious, or whatever metric you want to use. Images, honest images, let others get to know the face behind the words spoken in the community. There is no focus on a particular body type or even gender. All the scars of living are exposed and honoured. I guess, in a way, we could state that the community is body-positive though I am not so sure of that.

I understand this to be more of a person being self-positive and self-accepting. And at the same time, being honest with oneself that the journey to be our best selves is far from done. We acknowledge that the bodies we live in need to be nourished and taken care of to the best of our ability, an acknowledgement that doesn’t mean everyone is on a diet to lose weight or strive for a body-builder physique. After all, we are each given a body to house our thinking selves, whatever it is that allows us awareness of self.

Images are one of the things that allow us as individuals to track our own journey through time and space, a journey that includes “others” whether we want that to be the case or not. We belong in community regardless of how big or small the community might be. In reality, we belong in several communities within which we carve out separate identities or personae. In the end, we are the sum of all these identities. Whether or not there is a community of nude others is irrelevant. The persona we adopt in relation to our own naked bodies is part of the whole self.

Now, it is time for your words here. Nude images? Yay or nay? Why or why not?

It is cold out this morning, literally cold. I woke up to -8 Celsius temperatures, a “hard” frost as it is called around here. Summer is officially over and winter will soon make its entrance changing our lives here on the Canadian prairies. Outdoor nudity will become more and more of a rarity. With the coming of winter, I tend to shift from outdoor meditation to indoor sitting meditation. I’m not sure about most other people, but nude meditation has been a significant part of my life for more than a decade.

There are a few [actually more than a few] others who find time for nude meditation in some form or other. For some it is based on yogic practice. For others, it has to do with calming inner demons. And for some, the practice is all about spiritual connection. For me, it is a combination of taming the darkness and opening myself to the universe and connecting to my roots in the universe.

I have no religious attachment to meditation though I did begin meditation practice 49 years ago via Transcendental Meditation workshops with some kind of guru on the prairies. Ten years ago, I reached out to Tibetan Buddhism and learned to include conscious walking meditation while learning to be a Buddhist.

Today, I can’t claim to be a Buddhist. I don’t have the discipline or the inclination. My strong roots in Jungian psychology and my acceptance of being an individual [individuation] on a journey of self-discovery are barriers to my being able to commit to any outside authority when it comes to self and soul. My spirituality comes from within, not from some some guru, prophet, saviour, or cult leader. This isn’t said to diminish the paths and choices of others, it is simply a statement of who and how I am.

I meditate nude. This doesn’t define me as I do many other things while nude such as gardening, carpentry, writing, sleeping, and drinking tea, coffee and wine. Yet, meditating nude does add another layer that needs to be known if an “other” is to know me in more than a two-dimensional being.

For too many people, meditation, either nude or clothed, doesn’t fit into their lives. There is no time, no focus, no certainty that the time spent meditating will give them benefits. Though I began meditation, consciously committing to meditation, forty-nine years ago, there have been long periods where “life” was too filled for me to continue the practice. I gave up these sacred moments for stuff and activity and wasted hours, believing I had no time. Those beliefs crippled me for a long time. Thankfully, I survived and I retired [sort of] and pulled the pieces of me back together like some artist using powdered gold to make a lacquer to weld those pieces into a whole.

Do you meditate? Do you meditate nude? Why or why not? I am hoping to hear your story, your experience.

I have returned home after a month on the road. It was a good trip. I am surprised at just how much time I got to spend clothing free and my experiences during that month, such as my skinny dip attempt while in Tofino as seen in this image taken by my wife. I did get out far enough to take a short dip but the water was too cold to make it much of an event.

Since I have come home, I have been busy with doing some garden work – taking off the carrots and beets and the work around that to prepare them for the winter. Then, I began to do the first part of tilling the garden. We have two gardens, a small one which used to be a raspberry garden, and a larger one which we use for vegetables.

Today I turned over the small garden using a spade as the ground was too hard for a gas-fueled tiller. The second round of tilling that garden will be with the rototiller. The weather is turning quite cold outside with single digit temperatures in the afternoon, as well as brisk winds. As long as I keep myself busy and wear a tuque, all is well.

So why do I even bother with testing my limits? After all, it is cold outside. To be honest, I don’t have a good reason other than I “need” to do this. The more I am nude, the less stress that I feel. The nudity is for me, for my mental health and well-being. It isn’t an attempt to be seen by neighbours or to titillate. I share some images here to illustrate and nothing more. After all, a 70+ aged man naked man is never going to cause a rush of lust in other people.

I feel free and liberated and alive when I am nude. I know that I am alive and free when I am clothed, but it is different, a difference that only others who enjoy being nude can understand. There is a special kind of freedom when one is nude.

Today’s post highlights a moment from our cabin south of the town of Ucluelet, BC, Canada. For the past four days, the hot tub was enjoyed multiple times during the day. Typically, we would have morning coffee in the hot tub, with a second soak following the day’s hiking efforts. A final soak was left for the evening when a glass of wine was on the menu. Neither of us thought twice about not wearing a swimsuit when in the hot tub on the small front deck of the cabin My good wife took this photo of our last soak.

We have now left our hideaway and have begun a slow journey back to our small home on the prairies. The journey home began with a brief stop to hike before arriving in a sea-side town on the Island’s east coast for a planned visit with extended family. The next week will be filled with “duty” extended family visits. It is unlikely that we will get much hiking time during these visits, especially as the weather forecast is not very promising.

I have finally published my novel for middle-grade students [and those who are still young at heart], a story of three youngsters who don’t fit into their normal schools. They come from different countries and meet each other at the International Space Federation’s Reykjavik Campus with the objective of eventually becoming astronauts. The story was inspired by one of my grandsons who is a middle-grades student.

The art work for the cover was the creation of Fabien Barabé, an artist from eastern Canada. The book, Space Cadet Academy: Reykjavik Academy, is available only in paperback format for now from Amazon. I have written the second book to follow this one, however it will be months before it will be ready for release. I will let you know when that happens. A final note, the new book is not a Naturist Fiction novel. Nonetheless, it might be my best story to date.

Well, today is the last day in Ucluelet, BC. Tomorrow we head to Courtney as we begin to head back to our home on the prairies. Most of the return trip is about visiting extended family. Needless to say, I miss being in my own home and in my own bed after more than two weeks of being away. There is still another week and a half to go before then.

Hiking has made up the bulk of my activity for more than two weeks. During this time I hiked about 170 kilometres, hiking in sunshine, rain, and overcast skies threatening rain. I has been a blast. I am certain that the exercise, along with a reduction in boredom eating, has allowed me to feel so good about my body.

This is an important realisation – treat the body as though it is a temple. Eat well to feed the temple and exercise to allow the temple to withstand the ravages of time. The biggest winner in all of this is my psyche. The whole process is like a full body meditation. The Tibetans don’t just sit in meditation. They engage in walking meditation. Their daily chores are another offering of meditation. And, their exercise is purposeful meditation. I am no where near this level of mindfulness, nor do I expect to ever get there. And that is okay.

For the past four days, and for two days earlier in this journey, I have been enjoying time in a hot tub. Naturally, in all instances, even at my brother’s home, time in the hot tub was done while clothing free. Once inside our accommodations, clothing was again dispensed with as unessential. With the body uncluttered by clothing, the mind was uncluttered as well.

I’m writing from my first stop on Vancouver Island. We are in a rural location in a private accommodation. It is mostly raining though we are getting enough breaks in the weather to go for daily hikes in the cedar forests. The temperatures are hovering between ten and fifteen degrees Celsius as daytime highs. It is definitely not free-hiking weather. Weather aside, we are not in anyway hiking in remote locations. Despite the weather, the desire to be clothing free remains strong. Once indoors, clothing is unnecessary.

In four more days, we will be on the west coast of the Island where I will brave the elements and take on the challenge, if not dare, to sprint into the very cold water of the North Pacific. So far, there is no ocean or sea that we have visited where the challenge hasn’t been met including a couple of late winter dips into the Mediterranean Sea. Will there be a photo? Unknown. A photo is not the reason for the skinny deep. The reason is simple. Tradition.

I don’t imagine I will be writing another post until we are settled into a tiny cabin on the west coast, a tiny cabin with a hot tub on the front deck with the wild Pacific very, very close down a steep and wooded craggy coast line. Until then, be safe.