Water & Nature Heal All

At 1,475 feet above sea level, the Mississippi headwaters is the beginning of a 2,320 mile long journey to the Gulf of Mexico. With all the concerns about deforestation, this is an example of a beautiful place where the trees are still standing. This is thanks to early reservation of the park in the 1930s when logging was prohibited, which has allowed the scenery and its nature to stay in contact for almost a century. 

When capturing photos of this historical marker, I felt that just taking general overshots of the forests that surround the water wouldn’t be doing this sanctuary any justice. If we’re not actually there, just seeing an overview of the trees through a camera lense doesn’t fully describe that feeling of depth and warmth that comes about when seeing the sun shine off the water with the massive trees that surround the area. 

This is why I needed to create some perspective. Like the other visitors, I set foot in the water and I noticed these small orange flowers along the edge of the stream (see below). There was something about viewing the light reflecting off the stream with the flowers hovering over the water that really brought everything together. The sun and the orange colors felt like a perfect visual metaphor for how I was feeling at that moment. They helped describe that warm feeling of enlightenment that was only increasing throughout my visit.

There were definitely some other emotions that came about while being here. When the clouds came out, the shading put an emphasis on the green plants that gave me a sense of health and growth. Beneath all this vegetation, naturally there were even taller flowers. This is why I selected these purple beauties to put on display (see below). 

From the very beginning of this adventure, I wanted to take photos of my feet in the water because I thought that this was a distinct aspect of the trip. With other people already in the stream, I felt I could not waste the opportunity to take the same actions as those around me. Being someone who’s addicted to scrolling through his social media feed, I decided that all this scenery was the perfect way to dismiss the conflict seen on my iPhone and bring myself back into a state of reality.

Through creativity and an appreciation for the simple things in life, I went from a person who was in a dark place for years (not going into detail), to a person who is finally happy and accepting of who he is despite what others may have tried to tell me otherwise. I felt that the real me was the person standing in the water with his feet wet. Beauty and experience has brought me back down to a place of internal peace, and this is exactly how I feel in amazing locations like this.

Interestingly, I had read in an Outdoor Photography magazine that there is a practice known as Shin-rin-yoku, which stands for “forest bath.” It basically means that being in nature can create an array of health benefits when we step foot in the outdoors. 

You can also read more here.