What could be better than a new book to read? The Nature Fix, by Florence Williams, has fallen into my hands. The subtitle is alluring: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative.

Who would not want to be happier, healthier, and more creative?

I have long felt conflicted about my love for music and my love for hiking in the great outdoors. Every piano I see; I long to play. Every beautiful nature spot I pass; I long to hike. This conflicted feeling often starts when I introduce myself – or write a bio: If there is anything that comes close to matching Cherry’s passion for music and love for her piano, it is the Colorado Rocky Mountain High that comes from hiking Colorado’s higher elevations. Or do I mean: If there is anything Cherry Odelberg enjoys more than playing piano, it is hiking in the great outdoors.

Truth is, it is hard to have one without the other for me. That’s why my favorite piano about town is in Tropic UT. It is certainly not the tuning or the condition of the piano that makes it my favorite, oh no. I have had the satisfying privilege of playing a perfectly tuned, 9-foot Steinway in a recording studio in Dallas TX. The pianos about town in Ft. Collins are well maintained and welcoming, the art murals exquisite. It is not the zebra stripe painting that draws me to the dilapidated spinet in Tropic, UT. It is the proximity of this piano. It is the fact that I can hike in Bryce Canyon and enjoy a round of piano performance all in the same morning – or afternoon.

So yes, sometimes I feel conflicted when I choose a hike over a session at the piano. But can I really have one without the other?

I am in league with musical greatness when I love the great outdoors. Beethoven is said to have hugged a linden tree. It is that same consummate composer who reflected, “The woods, the trees and the rocks give man the resonance he needs.”

Ah Beethoven, yes they do. Yes they do.