I travel not to run away from the present but to get closer to it. Each time I travel I add a few more years to my life and end up writing another chapter in my book. Every time I am back from a trip, I m a lot richer, a lot wiser, a lot better.
When I meet the mountains, I feel I have met my true companion, a companion who is huge yet generous, tough on the outside but welcoming at heart. While I am hiking, I make an album of the picturesque beauty in my own mind, which I can relive anytime. I move, I halt; I relish every step and every move. I look at everything around and inhale the beauty with each breath.
I am not scared by the sheer magnanimity of the mountains, I am enamored by the way they embrace me, I can feel them hugging me tight. They call me closer and I keep walking to them.
When I am up there, I forget everything and just set out on a journey of self- discovery. Each trek makes me friendlier with myself, more accepting, more loving, more proud of who I am. I face my real self. The water of the streams is the union of beauty and purity. When I witness the water making its way through stones and rocks, yet managing to exude such beauty and grace, I realize that even when life is harsh, we need to smile and tread the destined journey with happiness and dignity. This makes us stronger and resilient.
How easy it is to forget the comfort of my bed when I am climbing. It takes no effort to fall in love with the tents. They are the only dwellings there and it is total fun to stay there waking up to strangers who are ready to become friends. Food is a lot tastier with a breath of fresh air. The relationships that we garner on the way up to the mountains are pure and from strangers they become friends with memories.
Once I conquer the peak, I feel there is no other accomplishment that can give me this sense of achievement. I just want to stay there and admire God’s beauty. I take a pause there to feel and store all the emotions I experience then. Every time I come down, I relive all those feelings and it is magical that I actually feel the pure air in my breath. As Robert frost says ‘I have miles to go before I sleep.’ There are many peaks to conquer, many journeys to tread and I will not stop.