It has been one week since I returned from a wilderness journey that changed me in ways I’m still trying to understand. For several days, everything I needed fit into a blue barrel and a green dry bag—shelter, clothes, food, and a few humble essentials. The rest came from the land: wisdom from the water, courage from the trees, and truth from silence. Out there, far from electricity and pavement, life becomes beautifully simple. You wake with the sun and sleep with the stars.

Step outside on a quiet morning. Watch the mist curl around the trunks of tall trees, hear the birds trading songs from branch to branch,...

Deep in the Atlantic Forest, I once stood in the presence of a centennial tree—its roots coiled like stories buried in the earth, its...

The weather that Saturday morning wasn’t promising. A chilly wind hinted that fall was just around the corner. As I arrived at the park,...