Rachel Popp- Experience of a Natural Setting #2

I recently went caving in West Virginia and experienced flow for what might be the first time in my life. Although I did not experience this beautiful piece of nature this semester, I hope writing about it will still be acceptable since the occurrence was an amazing and powerful one. This past summer, I was invited by a friend to go caving with a group of girl scouts. My friend encouraged me to bring my whole family as I studiously ignored him. There were plenty of reasons why I couldn’t go, or so I told myself at the time. I am slightly claustrophobic and caves are full of small spaces. I don’t like the dark and caves are dark. Caves are wet and cold. I don’t like wet and cold. I’m not a girl scout and never wanted to be one so I definitely won’t get along with the others on the trip. What if my headlamp went out and I found myself alone in that darkness? What if I got stuck in a small space? What if I got hypothermia? What if all of the girls I was sharing a room with hated me?

My mom, on the other hand, was ecstatic about the opportunity. So ecstatic that she told me I was going. She wouldn’t make me go in the cave, but I would be going with the family to West Virginia so I might as well. So I promised that I would at least try caving the first day of our two day trip. And I immediately fell in love with it. Decked out in thermal underwear, coveralls, hiking boots, head lamps, and knee pads, I explored our first cave called Snedegger’s until my muscles felt like they couldn’t go any further. The second day, I of course jumped at the chance to explore another cave called Norman.

Norman had water up to my chest that was freezing cold, holes in the water I needed to avoid plunging my feet through, and a low-hanging ceiling. Basically, the only thing I could think about while caving in Norman was caving in Norman. Thinking about anything else would me twisting my ankle, falling off a ledge to my death, or uncomfortably cracking my protected head against the ceiling and ‘ringing my own bell so to speak.’ As I trudged through the water with only the sounds of my companions behind me for company, I had my flow experience. I felt at one with nature as well as at one with myself. For once, I had no cares. All I could think about or feel was the beating of my own heart, my own breathing, the water rushing through my clothes and across my skin, the way my muscles flexed and relaxed as I climbed and jumped, and the calm beauty of the cave around me. Never in my life have I felt so relaxed and at peace not only with my life, but with myself as a human being. It was a truly amazing feeling that I hope to one day experience again.