Protea cynaroides among unlike neighbours

Large flowerheads and big, stalked leaves of Protea cynaroides appear next to a dwarfed Passerina and the strap-leaved blue-flowering but now fruiting Aristea. Further along, some tall pink pelargoniums add variety. Just the stuff people yearn to see after being too long among city throngs.

Observation starts off keenly in new surroundings. In the city it reduces to staying safe among pedestrians and vehicle traffic. Registering every movement and obstacle significant to own progress happens without featuring in the mind. As long as it remains within the familiar, implicitly predicted pattern, life events can be soon forgotten; physically close but personally distant.

In the veld, the high energy stage lasts longer, particularly on a first time back after long absence. Attention will fade gradually here as everywhere, but peace reigns, rather than zombie mode. The looking goes inward. Blurred sensations from somewhere trigger silent processions of notions hovering in welcome solitude.

Rocks and branches behave like courteous companions if the few dedicated brain cells do their job of acknowledging them in passing. The mind consumes the hours, not necessarily nearby.

Jung distinguished between personality types inclined to thinking and others tending to feel. Was I thinking or merely feeling? Doesn't matter! Nobody does just the one thing all the time, so it may be a half type, half trait phenomenon. Different cultures, different moods at different times favour the one over the other, a fascinating subject of self meandering unpredictably. Rather believe that one can do different things in the moment than be stuck in the repetition box of non-adventure.

For there are nature lovers among both these and every other bookish human nature type psychology dreams up. The veld reduces typecasting, removes unhealthy labels. If you doubt this, check the research on the incidence of snake-bite or bee-sting among introverts and extroverts.

The bush, the veld of any kind, the river, the sea, the desert and the mountain all turn people into worshipping observers of nature that brings peace within, making the mind whole again. On some days one can literally feel the liberation from the free man's prison of thought restrictions.

Cleansed, the mind explores the new ways of being on offer. There is involuntary testing of frontiers, of carrying on regardless. Fit the mould or fly high? As long as there's life, there's hope!

During every visit to the bush an issue on the retained list may re-open in the mind. Value is added faster if the options become "and", rather than "either-or". There are features of self, cycles of energy, curiosity, enterprise and daring to respond to one's share of serendipity, shaping a worthwhile journey. The cliché of every life being unique still has its moment.

 Such spring cleaning of the mind is what the bush is for. On such days one does not feel like concentrating on detail, or lose the miles in conversation.