Healing, endless greatness

Empty, vast landscapes – deserts, arid pans, the Karoo, the Free State plains, green valleys, the sea – change people. Your worries don’t vanish, but you gain a better perspective on them, says Annelise Erasmus.

- Annelise Erasmus

If the Psalms poet had lived in South Africa, Psalm 23 would have read quite differently, for David’s soul would have been invigorated by a diversity of places far beyond green pastures and still waters.

The first hard lockdown following the outbreak of Covid-19 meant that, for months, people all over the world had to live with a smaller view than they were accustomed to. The colours and scope of our landscapes were limited to what we were fortunate, or unfortunate, to see through our livingroom windows.We had to find beauty in small-scale still lifes that could not be changed easily.

Strangely enough, being confined to our own spaces met the need that humans experience in times of emergency: when we are worried, depressed, sad or tired, we seek out enclosed, snug landscapes that feel as though they are offering us a form of refuge. We want to retreat to a nest with our loved ones under our wing.

But humans are not static by nature, not even when it comes to survival. We still dream and plan for the day when we can drive further than the closest shop. Slowly, and within limits, we have been able to reclaim our freedom and eventually also steer our cars further and further beyond the boundaries of the suburb, the city, the province… to where we can once again enter our greatest landscapes. Vast expanses, the extent of which can be measured not only in distance but also in the transcendent way that we experience them.

I am changed by empty, immense landscapes. The sea is one such landscape, and so is any desert, an arid pan or Free State plain, a series of green valleys I am gazing down at… It is not as if my worries vanish, but I have greater perspective on them. It’s more a case of my problems shrinking because I become as small as I truly am.