Words by Kevin Unitt Photos by Sarah Badman-Flook
In my lowest life moments I’ve always managed to apply the belief that I can ‘walk walk walk until I feel well again’, so potent have I found physical activity in the great outdoors to be in terms of positive mental health.
These days, in a slight variation on the theme, I can also add ‘work work work’ to the toolkit, fortunate as I am to work in the wilds of Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park.
Every day the simple act of looking up and around, in the often dramatic settings, can bring a wave of appreciation for nature and a sense of gratitude in a sometimes otherwise strained and
anxious wider world.
Thankful for the meandering rivers, tumbling waterfalls, snow-specked hill sides, historic woodlands, the vivid bluebells of Spring, the riotous colour of Autumn leaf.
Life’s Paths
Employed as a Land Operations Officer, our small team carries out grounds maintenance across the Park, everything from chainsaw work to gate repairs and installations, invasive species
removal to grass cutting and bin emptying.
Following the perhaps unconventional route of dropping out of A-Levels, working at McDonald’s, becoming a journalist, moving hundreds of miles to Scotland and becoming a seasonal ranger, my latest role has spanned a pandemic, a marriage and fatherhood.
It remains the grounding, the earthing if you will, to whatever life throws at me.
I can swim the freshest lochs like an off-switch, escaping rumination and regret and worry and worse.
Sometimes none of this works, of course.
Sometimes thoughts take over, not batted away so easily.
Other days, in a flow state akin to the many rivers we work beside, there is no need for reflection.
Life is as up and down as the hills we scale to help others enjoy the same.
While this piece is in danger of meandering more than the Leven, and so replete with metaphors it might tip over into cliché, I did wish to express a serious point: that time outdoors, in nature, is my support network.
Sometimes my cure.
Rewards of the Outdoors
In low times, when you want to shut away inside, is exactly when it should be resisted most.
Fortunately I am contractually obliged, almost, to be outside, whatever the weather (‘whatever’ up here apparently meaning, basically, June or winter).
One time, on one of my most favourite days in the job, we led young people from a charity group up Conic Hill, carrying out some clearance work on the pathways and drains.
Initial complaints and protests slowly fell away into genuine enjoyment, the rewarding feeling of physical activity and seeing a tangible reward for their efforts.
For a few hours at least, whatever troubles in their young lives that had brought them there had been left behind.
Incredibly moving it was to witness.
Fortunately for me I get to experience that most work days, and am so thankful for it.
