This is perfect.

I couldn’t find a digital version of this article from Driftless magazine, so bear with my pictures. Driftless pays homage to the coziness of the Midwest, which I find delightful since I’m from Indiana. “Who We Are at the Edge” by Michele Popadich is an ode to the struggle between the city and the outdoors, which I can definitely relate to after moving to Chicago from a small town nestled in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts (which I absolutely loved)! It’s not that I don’t love Chicago, because I do for its diversity and cultural richness, but man I wish I could go for a drive in a beautiful, peaceful countryside sometimes…escape to a place that allows for reflection and renewal.

Popadich points out an interesting conundrum of wanting to belong to nature, but feeling like an outsider looking in no matter how hard one tries to be fully immersed in it. I think this is especially true for those of us who live in a city and have to travel to nature for some respite. Perhaps those who live within nature feel more connected to it. Either way, how lovely is it to get away from the buildings and cars and people and pollution, and see some trees and cows and take in the fresh smells of the earth?? Trying to feel as one with nature as possible by absorbing all of its splendor 🙂

The photographs are by Isabel Fajardo. Check out her nature photos, but also all the rest because they are magnificent!