Some perspective

The Dolly Sods Wilderness; not Pittsburgh, but not too far away.

Always in big woods when you leave familiar ground and step off alone into a new place there will be, along with the feelings of curiosity and excitement, a little nagging of dread.  It is the ancient fear of the unknown, and it is your first bond with the wilderness you are going into.  What you are doing is exploring.  You are undertaking the first experience, not of the place, but of yourself in that place. It is an experience of essential loneliness, for nobody can discover the world for anyone else.  It is only after we have discovered it for ourselves that it becomes a common ground and a common bond, and we cease to be alone.

- Wendell Berry