Graham says the walker/artist is teachable, and the teacher is nature. “Nature becomes your teacher, and from her you will learn what is beautiful and who you are and what your special quest is in life.”

I get the “beautiful” part, but I’m wondering how nature is going to show me who I am and what my quest is (or should be) in life. In my first retirement book, I suggested looking to one’s childhood to find identity and purpose. What you loved and enjoyed then just might shine light on what you will love and pursue in retirement.

Maybe that’s the connection Graham is making with beauty. What do we consider beautiful in nature? Why is it beautiful? Maybe the answer to that question is the same as finding what we love in life and what we want to pursue in retirement.

Graham says the student of nature “stretches his arms for hidden gifts,” which he will find in the “moonbeams and stars, the bird’s song and the murmuring of trees and streams.” The idea sounds much like the “highways of the gods” we explored earlier. We have to take off our blinders to see them.

What kind of blinders? I don’t know for certain, but I’m pretty sure busyness, hurry and anxiety or some of them.