The Power of Nature: The Coast, a Short Film

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We so often turn to our modern amenities to give us answers, but sometimes we need a reminder of the power of nature to keep us balanced. 

Many of us have turned to nature in search of answers. In search of solitude. In search of healing.

Because we are so often separated from nature, if we give into it, nature has the power to pull us back in, to transform.

Personally, my most transformative moments have always been in the outdoors. They have come through feeling vulnerable, through being challenged to work through fear, through facing breathtaking beauty and feeling insignificant in comparison. If you have nature, you have everything.

Whether we are urbanites or make our home in more rural areas, I think we all have this connection to nature in some way shape or form. Nature is raw. It’s where we are born from and where we return when we pass.

The Coast” from NRS Films on Vimeo.

“The Coast”, a beautiful short film by Skip Armstrong, captures exactly this: the power of nature, not only to heal, but to make us live.

“Life gets messy,” says Hayden Peters, the subject of “The Coast”. “The ocean puts things in perspective for me. In shows me in a very clear, undiluted form who I am.”

In the beginning of the film, Peters shares that he was faced with a potential diagnosis of a genetic diseases that would greatly shorten his life. He sought out the waves of the Oregon coast for solace. “The Coast” is a reflection on the power of waves, but whether we are souls of water or the mountains, the message remains the same. We may run, we may paddle, we may ride, but whatever and wherever we do it, nature remains a constant.

“I see the magic of life,” Peters says in the film, “I see the things that truly are meaningful to me. The experience that makes me a human being, that makes me alive.”

“The Coast” is a beautiful reminder that no matter what, nature is always there. There to embrace us, challenge us, force us to work through our problems and move forward, not only in the big, frightening moments, but in the small ones as well.

If there was a perfect ode to the guiding power of nature, “The Coast” is it.

Image: The Coast

Anna Brones

Anna Brones is a food + travel writer with a love for coffee and bikes. She is the author of The Culinary Cyclist and Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break. Catch her weekly column, Foodie Underground.