Healing

Nature is a frighteningly powerful force. In the modern world it’s easy to forget that, and just as easily we forget that power can also be healing and good. Especially when we are at our lowest, sometimes a re-submersion into nature is exactly what we need. That’s what Britany Freeman and her mother found while battling lymphoma. 

Britany’s mother was diagnosed with lymphoma several years ago. It was a terrifying fight, especially for Britany, who feared she would lose two people all at once: her mom and her best friend. 

“Well, my mother is the strongest woman that I know and awesome so she beat her lymphoma and she really wanted to start getting back outside again and we had an opportunity to go take a trip to Washington,” Said Britany. 

So they made plans to see Mt. Rainier and Olympic Park as soon as her mom received the green light from her doctor to begin returning to the activities she loves. This was key for her mother, as the outdoors have always held a place in her life and had become a large part of who she is. 

“I just wanted her to have this amazing trip. We started the trip at Mt. Rainer and doing a couple of hikes and just little things. I remember watching her not really struggle, but watching her push through a lot of things,” Said Britany. “The whole time I just saw her entire battle of what she had gone through unfolding in a different sense on the trail. I saw her trying to tackle all these obstacles and push through despite being tired and things like that. We had to make a lot more stops than we usually would have back in the day and I could see her getting frustrated.” 

But in the moments the frustration settled down, Britany witnessed her mother reclaiming her life. In nature she was alive and gathering the pieces she thought she had lost to recreate her world. To Britany, it was incredible. 

“We were on our way up this mountain and I just remember staring at her as we were getting ready to approach this lookout and just seeing that joy radiate across her face. She had made it, she had done it,” Said Britany. “It was the most that I had really truly seen her smile in what felt like years. I mean at that point it had probably been two or three years, so it was truly the most that I had really seen her smile. I could see that she felt accomplished and happy.” 

Britany sites the trip as being a parallel to the ups and downs they had been experiencing. She feels trails and trips offer the recurring theme of reflecting our lives in a different light, helping us to work through and heal from the worst. It’s always tough, but in the best of ways. 

“It was really this amazing thing of watching someone who had been through so much in such a short amount of time and so unexpectedly really just conquer themselves again. Conquer the things they had been through. To watch the outdoors bring her back to life and bring me my mom back,” Said Britany. “She wasn’t just a lady who had lymphoma, now she was a survivor. But that’s not all she was, she was still who she was beforehand.”