Hiking – the best alternative I know

Text and CreativeCommons drawing by Frits Ahlefeldt

When managers step on the gas pedal and scream for more hours, more growth and more, leaner and ever faster results, speeding up everything, to get their yearly bonus… could someone please explain to them that our small blue planet has gone into a furious blinking red… That we are running out of planet, out of resources, food, space, nature and luck – much faster than all the multinational companies combined can pay their managers those yearly bonuses in gold

So what has that to do with hiking?

Hiking is the best alternative logic and trail to thrive I have been able to find, after 30 years of research. And it is what Hiking.org is about.

Hiking is about connecting to this small blue planet, to the sunsets, to each other and to the land. It is about everything that speeding 24/7  for that bonus is not.

It is about creating trails, by walking them, it is about enjoying the views from the top of mountains instead of bulldozing straight lines through them, to get away from yourself.

It is about carrying what you need, to realize just how much those needs will weight you down and make progress more difficult. But also to realize how much easier you can move with less on your shoulders.

But more – it is about taking one step at a time, walking, connecting and thinking in ways that comes natural and can make you fall asleep at night, feeling alive in every cell.

Hiking is about learning to walk with nature, enjoying it instead of exploiting it for much more than we need.

It is about taking care and giving back and understanding a rainbow of new and more simple ways to thrive, that is much closer to our hearts, than any product or bonus can ever be.

Hiking is what, better than anything else I know, can make those managers remove their feet from the speeder, forget about their short-sighted bonus and start walking instead… along new and more sustainable trails.