Through a Naturist Lens

It has been a while since my last post. I want to assure you that it simply a matter of life getting in the way, not an issue of psychological distress or of intentionally abandoning this site. The primary reason for being absent has been related to the weather. It has actually been nice weather, the kind of weather that pulls one to be outdoors. For the past ten days, I have been taking walks between eight and twelve kilometres.

The walks have all been while I was clothed, of course. Late October and early November on the prairies in Canada don’t necessarily encourage one to hike while nude. I was tempted a few times, but the reality was that we weren’t the only people taking advantage of the warm spell. The first image was as close as I got to hiking while nude, and only because the trees kept the cool winds from persuading me to put my shirt back on.

Today promises to be the warmest day in quite a long time with the temperature forecast to reach 19C. Since today’s planned walk is in a different set of prairie hills with an absence of trees, along with a wind averaging 40km/hr, it might not be too promising in spite of being in a remote area with almost no chance of meeting another hiker. Tomorrow the temperature drops, drastically. Within two days, we are expecting up to sixty centimetres of snow – in other words – winter!

Writing has been the main reason for my absence. I have published two novellas and I am now working on a new novel as part of my annual participation in NaNoWriMo. I have been averaging around 3,000 words a day. The first novella is a story set during a pandemic, not Covid 19, but close enough to be contemporary. The only “speculative” aspect was the inclusion of aliens from another planet. The second novella is a story set during the age of Vikings, a historical fiction which has could be easily considered as non-fiction because of the historical content.

My NaNoWriMo story is something I’ve never tried before, a story being written for pre-teens, the Harry Potter crowd. I have a grandson in that age group who loves to read. That is my real motivation for that story which will hopefully become a Christmas gift for him.

I still live my life, for the most part, without the need to wear clothing. It is only when we have an occasional visiting neighbour [think next-door neighbours on either side], or when we are outdoors where there is a chance that someone will see me, that I find myself wearing clothing. If I put something on at any other time, I get asked, “Are you cold?” And, the answer is yes.

When will I return with the next post? That’s a question for which I have no answer. Writing will be my primary activity for at least another ten days. And of course, there is always something that comes up to sabotage one’s best intentions. That said, I still have another post or two to write in discussing from a Jungian psychology point of view, human personality. Until then, stay safe and in place as much as possible. We are truly in troubling times.

Being an introvert doesn’t mean that I am more or less rational than an extrovert. Nor, does it mean that I am more or less irrational. In the effort to try and understand myself and others, I have done a lot of studying and taken innumerable sorts of personality tests. After all, the objective is to “know thyself” as Socrates once stated thousands of years ago. You’d think that we would have had it all figured out by now.

Yet, here I am, a man who is seventy-one years of age, and still wrestling with this task of trying to know and understand myself. Why am I so invested in naturism? Why do I slip out of my clothing at every possible chance? Why do I let other people know this about myself? Why? Why? Why? Obviously, I don’t really have an answer to give to you, my readers. However, I can shed a bit of light on personality. Knowing the kind of person one is gives each of us a good starting point.

For example, in my last post, I talked about the attitudes of introversion and extroversion. With that knowledge tucked away in the background, there is a similar polarity in how we gather information, which then leads to another polarity in how we arrive at decisions using the data. I want to talk about how we gather data in today’s post. As I mentioned above, there is a polarity similar to that of introversion and extroversion. At one end is the use of sensation to gather data – what one sees, hears, tastes, smells, and touches. At the other end is intuition, where data is gathered more globally in nature.

100% Intuition ……………….. 0% or X ………………… Sensation 100%

As with extroversion and introversion, one is not locked in an either/or situation. Depending on many factors, each of us uses both to gather data with which we will then be able to make decisions based on that data. And as with extroversion and introversion, there is a resting point where for the individual is most like herself or himself. For me, that is at 80% along the Intuition sector. For the record, reason plays no role in the gathering of data. The data flows in and reason only comes into play when it is time to deal with that data. Because of that fact, both Sensation and Intuition are called irrational in nature. We perceive data before we work with data. How we perceive the data falls somewhere between the two poles. And to make a point, that place shifts constantly.

I walk down a road, wearing my clothing. There comes a point somewhere along the way where the data tells me that I am safe to remove my clothing. That data comes from a big picture, not from what my physical senses are telling me. When I trust my intuition, I make better choices for me. When I ignore my intuition and just use sensory data, I have been known to get into trouble – the empty road didn’t alert me to a truck that was moving my way, behind me, unseen. There is no right way or wrong way for the collection of data. Neither method is fool proof.

So, with that said, how do you typically gather information which will eventually allow you to make decisions? As for making the decisions, that is an entirely different post.

Well, it looks like early winter has set in here on the Canadian prairies. I woke up to -13 Celsius and the long term forecast tells me that there will be no overnight lows above freezing for the foreseeable future. As a writer, this is perhaps the best and most productive time of year. The urge to be doing something outdoors rather than sitting at a desk [or other writing location] seems to abate with colder outdoor temperatures. At least indoors, I don’t have to wear clothing. Warmer temperatures make it too tempting to stay inside.

I still go for long walks with my wife, despite the weather. Our daily average for the past few weeks has inched up to about ten kilometres with a mixture of 8, 10, and 12 km routes to be walked. Today, with sub-freezing temperatures, we walked a short five and a half kilometres, mainly because of the wind which adds to the discomfort. But of course, we dressed appropriately. Warm sweat pants topped with a thin wind pant on the bottom, and tee shirt, long-sleeved shirt, sweater, and a very light jacket with hood for the top. A pair of mittens and a tuque finished off our wardrobe for hiking. The motto nude when possible, and clothed when practical definitely plays a role in my life.

In this time of COVID 19, I don’t find it as much of a hardship to keep my physical distance from people as others who are more social beings, extroverts. I am an introvert. On a scale from 0 to 100, I am around 90% introverted. That is at my resting state when all things are equal in my life. However, I shift closer to the centre of the spectrum when life’s situations demand such as when socialising with people I know, or teaching, or working with a client. That is the key to understanding the relationship between introversion and extroversion. It is “work” for an introvert to act and be in the world in a more extroverted manner. One isn’t locked into a particular number on the line.

Introvert 100% ………. 0% or X ………. 100% Extrovert

Introversion and extroversion are described in psychological terms as attitude types. The psychologist who introduced the psychological description of personality types that is widely accepted and know in modern times, was Carl Gustav Jung. He looked at how humans seem to fall between to poles. The first pole, introversion, was characterised by an interest in the inner world where ideas trump things. The opposite pole, extroversion is drawn to things and finds more value in the outer world of things than the inner world of ideas.

It probably isn’t an accident that most people who are drawn to the arts, to music, to poetry, to authoring stories, and such are for the most part introverted. That isn’t to say that extroverts don’t write good poetry or novels, or paint, or dance, or create music. However, the products of their efforts do reflect their “dominant” attitude. For example, in the world of art, the more abstract, either in brush strokes or content, the chances are that the painter is predominantly introverted. The works of art that are almost precise replications of a subject, be it nature, a person, or a human construct, the more that the artist is more extroverted.

What is your experience? Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Do you thrive best with quiet and relationships with fewer people, or with engagement and activity with others and the outer world?

NaNoWriMo, the thirty day novel writing project, is quickly approaching. Since I have at least six writing projects in process, I have found it hard to focus on one particular project since returning to Canada in March 2020. I blame it on COVID 19. Now, in just over two weeks, I will be adding yet another novel to the mix. How do I manage to keep my sanity with all of this going on at the same time? Well, for me, it is walking.

A number of my blog posts have been about free-hiking, hiking while free from the confines of clothing. It has been a good year for this kind of activity. However, most of my walking has been done in the company of my wife while I wear clothing. It isn’t because of her presence, but because of where we usually walk. At times she walks with me when I free-hike without issue. And of course, weather is also a factor of whether or not I wear clothing when I hike. With summer gone and winter not yet here, walking outdoors has remained a very enjoyable activity. For example, over the past week alone, our shortest walk has been an 8 km effort. All the rest have been a mixture of 10 and 12 km efforts, or longer.

I write in the morning after coffee. Then, after breakfast we go for a walk. Lately we have been walking at a brisker pace, usually around 5.3 km/hr such as today’s 10 km walk. Upon our return, I return to writing as I want to recapture some of the ideas that had presented themselves while I walked. Weather permitting, I then spend some time outside doing yard work, such as pruning young trees, or simply enjoying autumn sunshine in spite of cool temperatures. With this diversion, I find myself finally able to get back to focused writing.

My current writing focus has shifted to a story about two youths who have their lives turned upside down because of a pandemic. The story isn’t really about the pandemic, but more about how a small group of people respond to the pandemic. When I first began the novel, I thought it was going to be more “normal” and more “reflective of the COVID 19 pandemic. But as usual, my intentions were turned aside as the writing muse had dictated another approach.

Unlike any of my previous works, this story could be categorised as Young Adult as the protagonist and his co-protagonist are both 18 years old. It won’t be a naturist novel, though naturism could be assumed to be in the background from time to time. The setting is in northern Canada for the most part though there is an assumption that there are other places yet to be in time. I guess that suggests that this could end up being a series rather than a single story.

Tomorrow is the official day for Thanksgiving in Canada. However like almost all Canadians, the whole of the three-day weekend is treated as Thanksgiving. Actually, for many, the holiday begins at some point on Friday. On Friday, I went solo hiking, as the previous post explained. Yesterday, I went hiking again, this time with my wife who had booked the day off. Today, she is back at work until the middle of the afternoon, at which point, we will work together to prepare our Thanksgiving feast, including the obligatory turkey.

Yesterday began with a long drive to reach a new hiking trail. Along the way, I managed to take a few wildlife photos of Pronghorn antelopes, Sandhill cranes, and a Coyote. It seemed that the animals and birds were patient while I set up my camera to get a collection of images. Of course, I took other photos as well as we were travelling down a road not yet taken in the past. However, that drive to our hiking destination was filled with wildlife. I was thankful for such a wealth of images and scenes that illustrated just how beautiful our world is.

Once we began our ten and a half kilometre long hike, with about half of it on loose sand, the energy levels rose. I love hiking, both clothed and nude. About two and a half kilometres into our hike, a small herd of Mule deer appeared. And like the other animals, they stopped and waited patiently for me to get a couple of photos.

At just over the halfway point, we stopped to get the sand out of our shoes and to enjoy an apple before walking the last four kilometres. My wife decided that I needed another photo taken of me. What was one of the things that made the day’s hike extra wonderful was the warmth and the sunshine. According to the two-week weather forecast, it was the last day of warm temperatures, meaning that we celebrated the end of Indian Summer together outdoors.

I have a lot to be thankful for. Having someone to share the days and the years has been the greatest blessing that I have been given. Having someone who shares my passions, well most of them, makes our years together even better. This day of hiking accented the need to recognise that I owe thanks to Mother Nature and our planet. For a wondrous day, the Internet and social media were set aside.

Once we got back home, the warm temperatures continued through the evening. We had wine on our back deck and some warmed up pizza. It is unlikely that we will have another evening of wine and relaxing music on the back deck where I don’t have to wear clothing until sometime next spring. I realise that it isn’t Thanksgiving Day in the rest of the world, yet I do know that regardless of an official day of thanksgiving, we all have so much to be thankful for in our lives. Happy Thanksgiving!

I didn’t believe that I would fit in another free-hike this year because of weather and a host of other reasons, but with weather being the prime deterrent. Today was a sunny day though the temperature was anything but promising. The forecast high was for 13 Celsius with a brisk breeze of 25 km/h. Once I had eaten lunch, I risked a writing break in the backyard. I saw sunshine in the corner by the shed and wondered if it would be worth spending time outside while nude. A half hour in the sunshine was enough to convince me to attempt a free-hike though the temperature had only reached 11 Celsius by three in the afternoon.

I pulled up to my regular departure point, parking my truck in a stubble field. Getting out of the truck, the breeze made me wonder if I was losing my mind. I dithered for a bit before chiding myself for being such a wimp. Off came my clothing which I put into a small bag, along with my keys, wallet, and phone. And then I was off. It was the sunshine that made the decision easier to make.

I walked down the familiar dirt road and turned off at an opening between two hills. I decided to explore the valley I had never walked down before. I stopped every once in a while to make the six kilometre hike last longer. I had all the time I needed to make the most of this golden opportunity. It was with a bit of regret when I reached the turn-around point of my hike. The journey back to my truck would have the sun at my side while I faced the breeze for the three kilometre return hike.

The walk was an unexpected gift from 2020.

I woke up early this morning. It was darker than dark. I sat in the darkness in my living room, staring out the window where a street light seemed to accent the darkness. I knew that in another two hours, the sky would begin shifting to daylight. Knowing that the light was making its way to where I sat while staring out the window, I was able to sip my coffee in comfort.

The darkness became calming, almost restful despite a lack of sleep. I am one of the fortunate modern humans. I have managed to navigate from a world where inner darkness reigned supreme, into an inner world where there is a beacon of light.

Before the sun rose, in the early light of dawn, I went outside and did my part to greet the emerging light. In the bigger picture, I see myself as a point of light, one of many such lights. It isn’t an ego thing where I am at the centre. Rather, it is a realisation that I am simply a container, a mirror of something bigger than myself. In total darkness, all that exists is thought, if anything. None can see themselves or others in total darkness. Yet, one can, if one dares, talk to the darkness.

It is at moments like this that I can understand how humanity has created or fallen into states of spirituality. Total darkness has a dark spirituality that denies or defies the light. There is no nothing but fear and hatred to feed on. Total light blinds and has its own rage and fear. It is an embrace of both light and dark that allows for dawn and sunrises, dusk and sunsets.

As a single point of light that is self-aware, one is better able to see the world as it is, and how one is within that world. Being self-aware is a journey that doesn’t appear to have a destination point where one can state, “I have arrived.” Rather, it is dropping all disguises to stand naked in both the darkness and the light, risking being seen by others without the masks and camouflage that we use as protective covers.

When we can’t look at ourselves without disgust, we dare not expose ourselves to others lest they see us as we believe we are. Negative self-concept feeds that disgust with the self. It also feeds anger that is then projected on others. We see this negative self-concept and dark projections overwhelming our world.

Yet, it need not be this way. The darkness that tortures us can be banished. There is a light within each of us that can be turned on if we would only dare. It is hard work. We need to see ourselves with more than our eyes that have been taught to be self-critical. We need to learn that beauty is not totally physical. Only when one can release the fear and the anger, can one breathe freely.

I’m back home in my small house on the prairies after a visit to my son’s home where I got to play at being grandfather. Thankfully, the weather was pleasant enough to spend time outdoors, planting leaves with the three-year old and visiting a local park with her and her younger brother. As we were playing later in the day, in the house, building a Lego castle, I noticed that one of the shelves in the living room had books on display. There are books everywhere in the house, not too unexpected. However, the living room isn’t what I would call part of the scattered library found in other rooms.

Curious, I looked at the titles and noticed that beside travel books, my novels, poetry books, and autobiography books were included. Now, there is no way that I could say that my daughter-in-law, who arranged this selection, is a naturist. Yet, here on display were books, especially the poetry books which contained nude photos, were naturist fiction and non-fiction books. The books weren’t hidden in a room where guests would likely never find themselves. Needless to say, this meant a lot to me.

Now that I am back at home, it is time to get back to writing as well as finishing up some garden-related chores. This morning, I had a bit of spade work left in the garden that needed to be done to loosen up the packed soil where the beets and carrots had been grown. This afternoon, I will travel to get a truck load of sheep manure for the vegetable garden [we took the last of the carrots out yesterday afternoon]. Once the manure is spread on the garden, I will do a final tilling of the soil to mix in the manure. And, as most of my readers know, almost all work done in the yard, I do while clothing-free.

I have to credit music with saving my sanity, and perhaps even my life. Music is an essential part of our lives. One sees almost every one with earphones attached to cellphones or mp3 players walking down streets, jogging through parks, slouched in quiet corners, or almost anywhere you can find people. Listening to music both soothes and inspires. Playing music, whether to an audience or in the privacy of one’s home is more.

The focus of turning inward is not about escaping being present in the real world, for the real world includes an inner dimension. The personal unconscious, as well as the collective unconscious are the foundations for personal consciousness and the collective consciousness. Music is one of the bridges between the conscious and the unconscious self.

Carl Jung experienced music therapy in 1956, an experience with Margaret Tilley. The experience had him say, “I feel that from now on music should be an essential part of every analysis. This reaches the deep archetypal material that we can only sometimes reach in our analytical work with patients. This is most remarkable.” This idea of reaching deep into the personal unconscious was, and remains, the primary work of Jungian psychology. Art in all of its forms has been integral to all forms of depth psychology, from the Rorschach tests, sand play, dance, clay sculpting, and art in its myriad of forms.

Music, like all art forms, is a product of soul. As such, it allows one soul to connect to other souls. And importantly, it allows the musician to sense the truth of her or his own soul. Playing music doesn’t automatically allow the musician access to the soul. For too many, taking lessons has simply been about the mechanics of music. I know this through experience. My efforts with a violin and a flute taught me that these were not my instruments that would allow me to touch my soul, though listening to others play worked. I also saw the disconnect in children who were forced to take music lessons. Thankfully, I had found the guitar when I was fourteen. Since then, fifty-seven years ago, I only have to pick up one of my guitars and find myself larger and fuller than being just another older man in his seventies.

It has been a few days since I last posted here, busy days. Today is another busy day for the most part, but I am able to find a bit of time for this place. So what has kept me so busy? Well, it is a combination of things, mostly garden work, long countryside walks, and some work on my various writing projects. With sunny days and warmish temperatures, it is hard to sit inside and write. These days are very numbered as deep autumn and winter tend to rush in at the first opening. As a result, here I am, writing before the sun rises for another day.

When I talk about psychological concepts, I find that I somehow embed a bit of Buddhism. It isn’t because I am a Buddhist. Though I once took refuge in Buddhism, I found out like with most things in my life, I couldn’t commit to being contained by this philosophy, or even less by the religion. Regardless, I found a lot of resonance between Jungian psychology and Buddhism. And that, enlarged the lens through which I see and understand the world.

The same holds true for naturism. There is no doubt that being nude and knowing that one is nude has a powerful effect on the psyche. Like everything else, humans are ranged along a line of tension in response to being nude. At one end, there is extreme distress and at the other end of the polarity is extreme bliss.

For most, we find ourselves somewhere between the poles, just as we find ourselves somewhere along the line between introversion and extroversion. Now, it must be noted that one rarely sits still between the poles. Different times, different days, different circumstances will have us constantly shift towards one pole or the other. However, when the psyche is at rest, there one’s authentic is revealed.

One’s authentic self is also revealed in relationships. Relationships are messy, and they aren’t limited to face-to-face relationships. Aside from the need to be in relationships [this is also variable] and the biological imperative, there is a psychological dimension. It is only through interaction with others, and in particular a significant other, that we can finally come face-to-face with ourselves.

We are drawn like a moth is pulled to a light in the darkness, to an “other.” Sometimes it is about love, sometimes it is about hate, and sometimes it is about a sense of being safe and protected. There are other reasons, but all have the same intent, one that comes from within one’s inner, unconscious self. What pulls us is part of our internal shadow that is projected onto the other. With no “other” all that is left is a substitution with material objects or with “pets” who are given human qualities, we anthropomorphize.

We need an other to engage with and confront if we are ever to know ourselves. I have put something called the Jo-Hari Window here to illustrate just how important the “other” is when it comes to self-discovery. My psych students used to have fun with this as they challenged each other to learn more about others, stuff that others had never disclosed, and about themselves as classmates pointed out characteristics that were known by them, but blind to the self. When one really thinks about it, almost everything we do and say when it involves other people, whether that other is friend, enemy, lover, offspring, stranger – it all is driven by biological and unconscious psychological imperatives.

I write, you read and you see. Any response on your part says more about you than it does me. Any response on your part also gives me an opportunity to discover something about myself if only I dare to listen. Social media is a powerful world of relationship. The moment you or I engage in a response of any kind – a smile, a “like”, a comment, a “share” or any manner of negative response such as “block” or rebuttal – a relationship and all that it entails has been activated. And with that activation, one can turn inward and “meditate” upon what it is inside that has been activated.

There is too much that can be said, so I will leave this as is for now. I hope that some of you, my readers, will have something to offer in response in the comments.