Why hike?
Because it’s so easy to live intellectually day-to-day — to get caught up in what comes next, to always be thinking of the future and what “could be”, instead of what is.
Because when you hike, it’s sunny, or it’s raining, or it’s hot, or it’s cold, or there are mosquitoes, or it’s spectacularly beautiful and just perfect. No matter what, you simply have to be with it, adapt yourself to conditions, to recognize how small you are and how big the world is. There’s something humbling and breathtaking about that.
Because we only have so many days on this planet, and being outside, feeling the sun on my skin, I know I am here, vividly and completely.
Because out there I’m alive. I’m often alive inside, as well, and I love those times — but outside I am always alive.
Is there any better way to be?
Great blog. This will be daily must see. Uncle Kurt
Thank you! It’s really good to see you here and have you along for the ride, er, hike. 😉
Ok this is going to sound weird but I was reading “the waste land” for giggles and part 5 is called what the thunder said. If you can look it up it seems very appropriate for the terrain you are now hiking. I promise future notes won’t be this strange. Kurt
Kurt — ha! That sounds great. We just hit a town and I just grabbed it for my iPhone. (For free — hooray for eventual copyright expiration!) Sounds like it should give me some interesting nighttime reading. 😉
Kurt has always been my number one “To Read” shaman!