I enjoy reading old books to see what was on people’s minds back then. Often times, you’ll find that people were thinking about the same things, with only the superficial details being different. One thing that hasn’t changed is the need to get outdoors. I just don’t feel right without it, and even feel sick if I go to long without it.

Here’s a passage I came across recently that I enjoyed, and it made me think of the daily lunch rides.

the simple perception of natural forms is a delight. The influence of the forms and actions in nature, is so needful to man, that, in its lowest functions, it seems to lie on the confines of commodity and beauty. To the body and mind which have been cramped by noxious work or company, nature is medicinal and restores their tone. The tradesman, the attorney comes out of the din and craft of the street, and sees the sky and the woods, and is a man again. In their eternal calm, he finds himself. The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.

-taken from Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1836