Per ritrovarti devi prima perderti

Learning to orient yourself in nature is the beginning of a journey of cultural liberation. It is a compelling and fascinating act: contemplating a vastness around you, a forest, a chain of mountains, a desert or a snowy expanse, and understanding how to embark on your own path.

Nature reveals forgotten potential of life to those who immerse themselves in it with deep involvement and trust. This is the precious teaching that Franco Michieli received during decades of explorations in numerous environments - both wild and anthropized - on Earth. In this book he offers us the technical and philosophical bases to revive an exploratory gaze within us thanks to natural orientation. It means interpreting the environment through the senses and cognitive skills that each living being possesses, accepting that natural events play their part in giving us answers and showing us possible paths. Without the need for technological prostheses. The Sun, stars, mountains, rivers, coasts, winds, vegetation, sounds and much more act as compasses and maps, even in the forest or in the fog, if you learn to read them. In every search it is possible to get lost. But the loss is temporary when one knows how to wait with participation for an opening. Then not only do we find ourselves: we experience something new, powerful and unexpected that the safe path would never have revealed.