I love the articles here about people who have gone through challenges and changes and nudism/naturism has changed their lives. It’s incredibly inspiring. Being a nearly life-long nudist/naturist I don’t really have anything to add to that. So, I’ll offer what I know; a somewhat more humorous side of nudism/naturism. That said, let’s go.
When I was sixteen, my younger sister and I went to a local hot spring in late October. It was uncharacteristically cold and cloudy that morning and it was very foggy; perfect weather for a hot spring visit (which is about 100 feet from a large lake; thus, the fog).
We’d been there about thirty minutes when we heard a couple of people tromping through the dead cattails from the direction of the lake. This is not the typical way to reach the hot spring. I assumed they must be duck hunters since we’d heard shot guns being fired earlier. (It was too foggy to see anything so I don’t know what they were shooting at.)
We had gotten out of the water just before hearing them because we were overheated and cooling off in the cold air. As they got close, my sister started to duck into the water to hide herself but I motioned for her to stay put. She looked at me funny but hesitantly remained where she was sitting. I whispered to her to not cover up, at all, and I’d explain after. No, I wasn’t just making her be an exhibitionist, there was a bigger reason.
I had recently read the best way to react in this type of situation, to help promote the nudist/naturist lifestyle, is to act normal like this kind of thing happens all the time. Hiding, or acting like being naked is wrong, reinforces the world view of simple nudity being shameful. Acting confident and just as normal as if you were clothed gives the person a different mindset and hopefully brings more acceptance to the nudist/naturist lifestyle. This is why I had her remain out of the water. It was basically for us to be unofficial ambassadors for the nudist/naturist lifestyle.
A teenage boy emerged about twenty yards (~18 m) from us. The fog was so thick he was hazy and he didn’t see us and just kept walking toward the road. Another teenage boy emerged right across from where my sister was sitting. She obviously blushed when he looked at her. I asked if he was having any luck. He snapped back to reality and said the fog was making it impossible.
When they had both gone, I told her that she did well for her first time being seen naked in “public.” Then I explained to her what I had read about not acting like it was “wrong.” She said she was scared and a little embarrassed when he first saw her but after a few seconds she got over it and didn’t care much because she spends so much time naked anyway.
About five minutes later we heard someone coming back through the underbrush, rather than the trail, from the direction of the street. We had just gotten back in the hot water but my sister got back out and sat on the edge of the spring again. She whispered we had to “make it look natural, right?” Well, that’s what I had told her so, even though I didn’t want to, I joined her in getting back out of the water.
The boy that had been behind me in the haze, and had missed seeing us, popped into the clearing and started looking around. He said he’d dropped a glove and asked if we’d seen it. Now, he had been at least 40-50 feet from where he was now looking, and he seemed to be looking at my sister a lot more than at the ground. I didn’t say anything about it and just told him we hadn’t seen it.
This is when my sister jumped up and said she’d help him look. His eyes about popped out of his head when she got up and stood completely naked in front of him. So did mine because I never expected her to be that bold! It was hard not to laugh at the situation; a nervous teen boy in complete winter clothing standing there while my naked sister was walking around in front of him looking for a nonexistent glove. The contrast could not have been more hilariously different.
She asked if he had ever been to the hot spring naked before. He said he hadn’t. She told him he should try it. He said he’d be too nervous to be naked outside. Her response was magnificent! She said “I’m a girl, I’m younger than you, I’m naked and don’t care if people see me, and besides, being naked is totally normal.” I laughed out loud at that comment. Apparently she had accepted her roll as a nudist/naturist ambassador. He didn’t really have a response so she told him to be at the spring at 10 am the next Saturday and he could get naked with her. Well, he never showed up. Who knows, maybe he tried another time and her effort was worth it. If nothing else he saw someone just acting normally while they were naked. I hope it had some small positive impact at least.
