I participated in a sweatlodge purification ceremony, a ritual that, for centuries, has been an essential part of Native American culture. What is it today? A product offered by some spiritual supermarket, or perhaps a way to purification for those lost in modern reality?

“In the sweat lounge, you shall be reborn,” promised my friend, who had recently experienced his spiritual awakening. In the supermarket of religion, he grabbed whatever he fancied off the shelves: cacao ceremonies, vision-hunting expeditions, the ritual burning of the Agnihotra fires at sunrise and sunset. He ‘tried to find himself’ in Rapé ceremonies and intuitive dances. He sat in the men’s circle, and he claimed that the world “should be viewed through the lens of the heart, not the mind.” “The New Age is alive and well,” I thought mockingly, seeing the bumper crop of eclectic spiritual solutions. I tried to remain close friends with reason, but it didn’t work out this way. I wasn’t sure what was gnawing at me until I finally found the name for it: anthropo-yearning. After several drawn-out months of coronavirus-induced isolation, I longed for human contact; I needed to interact with another member of my species. In order to find them, I entered a sweat lounge. I did not care for being reborn – it sounded like some dodgy life-coach-like empty promise. All I was after was to cure my anthropo-yearning.

I also missed nature. And space. In the Bolimów Landscape Park, only 70 kilometres south-west of Warsaw, both nature and space are abundantly generous.

In the pine forest, you can encounter roe deer, hares, foxes, fallow deer, and even racoon dogs. In nearby Żyrardów, local media regularly report moose blocking the road and beavers