Acceptance

Friday June 20^th 2025 opens up with my eye lids.  I find myself back in the mountain forest under blue skies. Last night’s smell of smoke is gone, replaced by a sense of clarity. All is seen through the net tent, as the sun is getting us up, out and about, acting like a parent sending us off to school. We conked out last night early. A glance at a cell phone tells us that we have slept for more than 12 hours. “How’d we do that?”

“Maybe there actually are fairies with magic powders in the woods.”

“Huh?” “Better check on your pot of gold!”

It is day, everything is telling me, actually shouting at me, the message about the displacement of the calm and peace of the night. I hear the wind blowing high in the trees above, and nearby, the rustling leaves of the young aspen that are determined to someday populate this field of short grasses and dainty flowering greens.

I climb out of the tent stiffly, making my way to my appointment. I find the route through the brush to the office, a pleasant spot that is still slumbering in deep shadows.

As I stand, I notice nibbles on my calves and ankles. Those Utah no-see-ums flash out of my memories. My mind grinds out, “If so, we’re movin’.” But they seem to prefer the shade…

…I sit fully naked in my folding chair, absorbing the warmth of the morning sun, dusty Earth on the soles of my bare feet. There are occasional critters that I launch with a flick of my finger. A fly stops by, I’m thinking, “just to irritate me.” I breathe in, puff my cheeks and then blow out directly at it. It is gone, done with me. I’m reminded, I take note to brush my teeth, swish some water, re-hydrate.

I contemplate, “What to do…?” I can do anything within reach, or nothing. There is no plan, only choices. I answer myself, “I’ll write.” Thoughts have been dropping into mind; it is a good time to write, but first, prayer. I always start with a prayer. Even the most grinding start clears up after a prayer. I dig out a copy of “The Daily Word,” which is a Unity Church daily spiritual ritual book of wisdom and thought. Something that we have learned to value. Today, the topic is acceptance.

I read, “Children feel the need for acceptance and in adulthood, it expands, including work, the romantic and community. After teaching children I know how docile they can be, wanting to please the adult. But in aging, I, myself, became much less willing to please.”

I begin to think about this nude thing in that context. It was more about being willing to accept myself unconditionally and that for others. Also, acceptance of my body and understanding what its place is in a true life. This is so much about my individuality. As a teenager and young man, all of my life as well, Thoreau and Emerson (and maybe a little Steve McQueen) were very important to me in my emerging sense of identity and moral truths. I questioned and evaluated the world around me. I started out on track toward attitudinal acceptance, when looking for truths.

Living nude, there are plenty of contexts where acceptance may not be given to me. Much of it is a matter of illusion, but it seems that most people don’t care and accept it in various ways, from “okay,” to “not around me,” to “but just okay around me,” to “me too.” But then, as a child of the sixties, when I began to express my individuality, I met with similar and sometimes violent reactions to my choices. The ways that I chose to be different and to look different, had something to do with seeing the raging sixties race issues as that of being born into different and also looking different. I met with a social sense of doing the right thing, to be authentic, true to myself. I learned about injustice around me and to not “judge the book by its cover.”

There were consequences and there was benefit along the path that I chose. All in all, as I look back, purposely  accepting myself, surrendering to who I am as major themes in my life, that gives me no regrets. It is something that can’t be taken from me. I have no shame and I know that I have been made stronger even by my losses to the power of conformist and the fools when they projected upon me and acted in their illusions. My life has been richer and interesting. Looking back, these have been the things that has led me to the greatest satisfactions and opportunities. I have tried many alternatives to conformity and kept to my findings sometimes stubbornly, sometimes sneakily, to mitigate my choices with the world. Sometimes, it has had to have been even combative.

Nudity has been such experimentation. More than just the act, the experience has had risk with family, with many authorities, with jobs and in custody courts with children. I have had to fall back and stand down, or be victimized. At times, I’ve chosen to compromise when weighing my lifestyle against the loss of other values. I have put off, delaying my actions here and there, but always, I have maintained a sense of who I am and generally not hid from others the nudist within myself and my beliefs. This persecution of the human body has instead taught me the positions of right and less of teaching the wrongs that I have recognized as holding us down.

To my mind, this world has not been as it should. Rights are not always clear in this world. Justice isn’t universal, but maybe at some time. I would prefer to accept my body as myself, just as I accept others. I’d love to see the naked raw truth to be known and accepted and all the gifts associated with it to be learned and explored.

Naked in a material world does teach so much. For example, I have clarity of many material obsessions, say like clothing, the right shoes, laundry habits, thermostat regulation, or being so immersed in the man-made world that one can’t see the true forest for the things. Much of the natural world that we came from, evolved in, can be accepted back and then to enhance the new man-made lifestyles. We can find knowledge and truths from our nude experiences and especially exploring nature.

There can be seen from stepping out and gaining clear perspective, that the modern lifestyle, American lifestyle, isn’t healthy. We evolved otherwise. Nudity is a Blessing and our nature, from the health of vitamin D, to being who we actually are in this world. Often, I feel kinda in the ilk of what John Prine said, “Turn off your devices, go to the country, eat a lot of peaches, get naked with your friends and dance” (Okay, not exactly a quote).

I have found that the world created by clothing, the “suits,” is an illusion. Being accepted is a good thing, yes; people are driven by a need for love. Losing one’s nature to be accepted is not a good thing. Be unique, be an amazing and creative person, but without discarding the notice of the being of that unique amazing creature of nature and body. Anchor that, never forget it, stop and notice a breath. Naturism is a key to that. Unconditionally accept others exactly as they are. See them naked, as you see and accept your own unique imperfect perfection.

My attitude and I’m stickin’ with it.

It is time to take an absolutely naked open ended walk with the forest and clear out my head some…before breakfast.

I am on the forum of FreeRangeNaturism.com often, if you would like to converse.

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