Before he was a UN Secretary-General or a member of the Swedish Academy helping to select literary Nobel Prize winners or a multilingual diplomat who traveled the world, Dag Hammarskjöld was simply a man who loved to feel the earth beneath his feet.
A Cathedral Without Walls
Nature was never just a backdrop for Dag. It was a sacred space. A cathedral without walls.
Born in Jönköping and raised in Uppsala, Dag grew up surrounded by forests, lakes, and mountains that would become spiritual companions throughout his life. His love of hiking was both a hobby and a ritual. As a boy, Dag loved to muck in the dirt, swim, ice skate, climb trees, etc. His mother, Agnes, even developed the nickname “little larva” for him because he enjoyed identifying various insects and recalling their proper names. The influence of fellow Swede Carl Linnaeus was evident in Dag’s life.
“The Grass Under My Feet”
As Dag’s career demands at the United Nations became more strenuous, it was difficult for him to come home to Sweden as often as he’d like. He rented a country property in Brewster, New York as a way to escape the frenzy. Sometimes Dag would hike or camp alone and other times with a small group of friends. During a 1954 interview with Edward R. Murrow on Person to Person, Dag stated that he loved to go to Brewster when time allowed simply to feel the grass under his feet and reconnect with the natural world.
No Separation
Dag Hammarskjöld understood something modern life so often forgets: nature isn’t separate from us. It’s part of who we are. The forest, the ocean, the mountain trail—they aren’t escapes. They are returns. Returns to self. To the soul. Dag was a speaker at the 75th Anniversary for the Svenska Turistföreningen and he addressed this theme quite wisely:
Dag was a featured speaker for the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the Swedish Tourist Association. He’d been a board member for many years and even with his commitments to the UN, he helped whenever he could. He addressed the gathering with one of his familiar themes: Knowing oneself is crucial to understanding the world.
“We travel to other nations and experience the grandeur of distant places: wide oceans, sun-baked plains, verdant jungles, and lofty summits. We cross paths with people of varied cultures and convictions. Yet the more interactions we have, the fewer differences we see. We observe how many ideals are shared by humans across the globe. We start out leaving home, imagining a path that leads us to the wider world. As we traverse that wider world, we realize that the same path ultimately takes us back to the start. The savvy traveler begins to see there is no real separation: inward and outward, home and distant lands. The path that seems linear, we realize, is a circle.”
-Passage from Decoding the Unicorn: A New Look at Dag Hammarskjöld
As Secretary-General, Dag brought this reverence into his leadership. In a world that moves too fast, forgets too easily, and builds too high, Dag reminds us to go back to the source.
To listen to the trees, feel the ground, and remember that even the busiest person needs to walk barefoot sometimes.
Explore more:
- The Listener’s Edge: What Dag Hammarskjöld Taught Us About Active Listening
- A Candle in the Dark: Why Dag Hammarskjöld Still Inspires in Uncertain Times
- The Compass Within: How Dag Hammarskjöld Stayed True to His Moral Code
Stay tuned for more.
New to Dag’s life and legacy? Start here.