Through a Naturist Lens

Yesterday evening I gave a Jungian presentation at Layla Guesthouse on the topic of Individuation. I was surprised at how many people actually came to listen as psychology isn’t exactly a hot topic here. At the end of the presentation, a youngish Mexican woman asked if I would take her on as a client for psychotherapy. I hadn’t even thought of that possibility. Naturally, I said yes with the first session set for later this afternoon at our place.

I have been going to Layla Guesthouse every Tuesday evening for group meditation and dharma. In my talk earlier this evening, I included this comment about the soul which is the bedrock of Individuation:

“Anima and animus are the opposite gender aspect of oneself that can also be called one’s soul. This contra-sexual inner other lies in the unconscious and is the primary force that animates us into life, into relationship to others and to the world.“

Of course, these words also fit in with the poetry project that I have planned. The poetry project. I have my books and I am struggling to create poems not knowing what photos could be used as I don’t have any that would work. I might have to ask the naturist community to help with this like I did for the second book. We will see,

We arrived at Casa Sorpresas in time to spend New Year’s Eve in a warm place. It was unbelievably cold when we took the taxi from the Heritage Inn in Saskatoon to the airport.

The first skyclad photo taken was this one taken and shown below, on the morning of December 31 showing my meditation cushion. Neither of us worried about my being outside of the studio while not wearing any clothing. Having made certain with K that it would be okay, the pressure to contain my nudity was gone.

It didn’t take long before I got down to working on my latest writing project. I had just published the second book of Naked Poetry in December and had decided to work on a third volume of the series, one that would be loosely based on Robert A. Johnson’s books: He, She, and We. My wife took this photo of me working on the book at ten this morning, just before we went out for our usual walk along the beach. Both of us are relaxed and enjoying the warmth of Mexico and the sitting still.

Christmas is only days away and my daughter from the USA will be coming with her family tomorrow evening to spend Christmas with us. It has been a busy month for me as a writer. I published a new book called A Small Company of Pilgrims and the second book of Naked Poetry. The first book of poetry now had 360 free downloads. That success and the addition of the second book of poetry had my wife suggest that I put a price on those books at Smashwords.

Yesterday, I made the first sale of the new book of poetry. I guess that makes me “professional” in a way though not in terms of a traditionally published writer. A check on my other books on Smashwords show that Broken Road has 548 downloads, the Through a Jungian Lens: The Hero within book has 395 downloads, a second Jungian Lens book, Swamplands of the Soul has 292 downloads, and Broken Boy has 286 downloads. I think the time has come to shift from free to paid for all of them.

I got to spend time in Swift Current where I was to teenagers and dog sit for my eldest daughter. Since the two boys were in high school classes, I had a lot of time to myself. I did a lot of writing on my NaNoWriMo project for this year, In addition, I am taking these private hours in her home to be myself, clothing free. Since they have a hot tub on the lower deck in their back yard, I definitely took time each day to immerse myself in the steaming water. Back home, I had the time and opportunity to shovel snow off my backyard cement pathways and deck. It was an invigorating experience that can’t really be explained

Since it is December, we have put up all the decorations, indoors and out. It has become a tradition in our home to do so on December 1st. This year was no exception.

Well, there was more to my absence from this blog site than my writing projects. The sharing of my naturist blog posts on Facebook had become too much for my wife to handle and was causing discord between us. There is an element of trust when it comes to my nudity which is at the heart of the issue. Now, I can’t say that I blame her, as I do take unnecessary risks.

With the return to Mexico and the ceasing of sharing posts on Facebook, I am hoping that life, a more naturist life, will be more peaceful between us. Maybe I should just learn to be less daring, risking our reputation in the community.

Before the end of the year, we will be going back to Puerto Morelos and Casa Sorpresas. I already have ideas for a new poetry book, one that is founded upon the masculine, the feminine, and the union of the two. I hope to talk more about this in a future post.

Why do good people do bad things? It’s a question that needs to be asked as well as trying to define what is bad. Is it bad to be nude? It depends whom you ask. In the general scheme of things, I doubt that the universe particularly cares if you or I wear or don’t clothing. In spiritual terms, perhaps nudity is the most spiritual way to approach the numinous. Egyptian priests used to shave themselves until they were hairless before they presented themselves before their pantheon of gods and goddesses. In the Garden of Eden, nudity was the exalted state of being. With the lesson that if you hid behind some sort of clothing out of shame for being clothing free, you were kicked out of paradise.

Yet, in today’s world, most would claim that being nude outside of the shower or bath verges on the edge of being evil behaviour.

The book I am reading by James Hollis examines this idea of why we do things that get us in trouble though he doesn’t talk about nudity. Nudity does get us in trouble with individuals that are close to us and with society in general.

I don’t have any answers. I just know that to be authentic, to be my real self, I need to embrace nudity.

I just realized that I haven’t been to Green Haven this year, nor to Helios which we had planned on visiting. It was almost all due to wet and cold weather. I did visit Green Haven last September, alone.

I had gone to Winnipeg to buy a new-to-us camping trailer. We had made a lot of good use of the camper since then with all of that use being related to hiking and training for the Camino which we will attempt in the fall of 2015. I guess you could say that the Camino is obsessing us. Our hikes are now alternating between eight and sixteen kilometres with a couple of twenty-plus efforts thrown in for good measure.

We are in Prince Albert National Park in the northern part of the province this week. We had visited Cypress Hills Park in the southern part of the province a week and a half ago. There were no naturist photos taken in the park as it was busy with people though we did get many photos of wildlife.

In the national park, it has been a challenge to try and get a skyclad photo outdoors even though it wasn’t busy in the least. Because of the very cool weather and with vacation season over for families with children, there were opportunities for naturist photography. I finally managed this one despite the damp cold weather.

I am in Estevan waiting for my appointment to try and deal with my allergies. The drive here was good as I easily handled driving alone. I found a pull out about 40 kilometres from my home, so I stopped and decided to remove my shirt and shorts. I risked taking this photo even though it was risky with passing traffic. For a while, I did wonder if passing truckers could see that I was nude while driving.

I was able to get a number of photos along the way and here in Estevan as I had ample time. I drove the complete distance skyclad, with the exception of getting gas in Caronport, where I slipped on the blue wrap and my tee shirt. There is one benefit for paying for gas at the pump using a credit card.

With thoughts of some of my poetry, I took advantage of the quiet Catholic chapel located in Saint Joseph’s hospital here in Estevan. I hope that one of the images will be useful with the poetry book. If not, at least I have a better idea for what not to put in a photo.

When I have finished with my morning coffee, I will head out for a short hike while the world is still sleeping. I woke up at 6:30 this morning, at least woke up as I knew that it was time to wake up. The sky was light for quite some time before. There were few campers at the campgrounds.

I risked going for a walk along a few paths and went to the edge of the lake. I wasn’t exactly nonchalant about walking nude without a pair of shorts to put on just in case. No one was up as early as I was from the absence of people and noise. I had assumed I could hike without the need for clothing. Well, to be honest, I didn’t think about it much at all. I just wanted to walk au naturel

It was as quiet as I had hoped it would be and I had no problem getting a morning photo of myself skyclad alongside the water. I hadn’t taken the tripod with me, so I improvised with using a dock-like viewing platform near the campgrounds’ amphitheatre.

Then, it was back to my campsite where I took the time to make breakfast. I am expecting my son and his son later in the day. When they are here, I will keep my clothes on. I love these

I was sitting in my usual chair yesterday evening, reading, while my wife sat on the love seat talking on the phone to her sister when our neighbour from two doors down quietly entered our house. This is the same woman who has frequently come over while my wife was at work. Of course, she has visited our house much more than that, sometimes with her husband in tow.

She had been over for a BBQ supper earlier in the evening with her husband. We had said good-byes as they are off on a camping trip tomorrow. Usually when she enters our home when my wife is there, she calls out as she knows that I am often nude in the house. Yes, she has seen me naked in the past and that was probably more of a shock to me than it was to her.

Well, to continue the story, she entered our home without knocking or making any noise at all. She is not a quiet person by any stretch of imagination. She removed her shoes in the kitchen in silence which I thought strange, something she has never done before. It was as if she was intent on surprising us. And then entered the living room where I sat reading, just as I am in this photo, completely nude.

She then sat beside me in the empty rocking chair and asked me if I could write out the rules of the dice game she intends to play with her grandchildren while camping. My nudity was obvious, nothing was hidden, perhaps even more than obvious. I discretely placed my book in a position to cover up my penis while trying to make it a natural movement rather than as a cover-up. My wife gave a strange and surprised look as the neighbour who sat beside me, but then ignored her presence as she continued talking on the phone with her sister.

I didn’t know the rules of the game as I took the pencil and paper handed to me, so I hesitated. Seeing my my dilemma, my wife went to the games drawer and got out the rules for our neighbour and put them on the dining room table so that our neighbour could write out the rules for herself at the table. While that was happening, I got to cover myself , then continued with my reading. When she was done she left with a thank you.

This was the first time she has come over while I was nude and my wife was at home. Is this a new normal?

It’s the last day of June and it is cold and dreary out. Looking back at the weekend which I had originally planned on spending at Green Haven; it was a good decision to stay home.

It has been raining off and on most of the time with only a few hours of sunshine on Saturday which I put to good use with a naturist hike in the hills and valley south of town.

I can’t say as I really understand this compulsion to take these nude photos, but I do know that when I withdraw from doing so, I usually have a descent into darkness. Knowing this, I know that the photos are the lesser problem. I end up being a more relaxed person, a state of being that makes it much easier for my wife.

There is no question in my mind that nudity has been helping me find a better balance in life. Besides improving my mental health, nudity has encouraged me to follow through with being better focused on my physical health.  Three full months back from Mexico and I still weigh in at 165 pounds, a good ten to fifteen pounds lighter than my average weight over the past ten years. I am becoming increasingly prouder of my body even though there is still more improvement needed.

It is hard to believe that less than two years ago I weighed 180 pounds, was on high blood pressure medications and a range of allergy medications. Nudity, nudity that became accepted by my wife at the end of January 2013 while in Mexico was the turning point. Now, the high blood pressure meds are history as well as the allergy meds. It began with my acceptance of nudity and of being a naturist, a shift that had me do the work to become physically healthier.

In a sense, I guess it is a real statement about this nudity, this naturism being the reality of who I am now, at this stage of my life. When I fight it, when I rebel, it bites back with a vengeance that leaves both of us suffering, wondering how it is possible to continue being together, even wondering about how it is possible to continue living if we are not together.

I received my edited poems for the second poetry book back from Will Forest, author of Co-ed Naked Philosophy. Now, I will have to sit down with them and make the needed corrections and select the forty poems I will use in the next book. Then I will sit down with my wife to plan the photos for each poem. Will it work out this way? I don’t know. I do know that she was very positive about the first book of Naked Poetry, including having her photos in the book, one of them a nude photo. The first book of Naked Poetry has had 254 downloads to date, an impressive number in my mind.

I haven’t done any free-hiking since last month. I have taken to mowing my back lawn while nude when I have the house to myself. It is what it is, and I don’t want to complain. After all, there could be less naturism in my life if push came to shove.

I have continued to meditate and write in my office while nude, and I have even found some time when camping for a bit of nudity in the add-on to our small trailer. These are the small things that keep the hunger for more nudity at a safe distance for a balanced life.

Stretching out our hiking has been the top priority so far this spring. New boots and hiking poles have been purchased and so far they are proving to be what works best for us.