When you just know…

No other landscape has had such a profound impact on me.  Nothing calms my soul, bringing up a welling in the eyes of just being.  The quietness, the calmness, the supposedly thin air that always fills me full of energy.  The aroma of the forest as the temperature rises in the early afternoon.  I have never felt so complete, calm, happy, in the moment.  That’s what occurred two weekends ago and always has been that way from the first time I set foot in them as a child.  Although enjoyment is found in all landscapes, none can compare when I’m in the mountains.

I’ve ran, hiked, backpacked, driven, and even just sat from a perch looking down on an alpine lake encircled by firs.  Alone…  Alpenglow enhancing the morning landscape.  The distant sound of a rock free of its once icy embrace, tumbling down a steep slope as rays of sunshine warm the air.  It’s not about what I do while I’m there, but just about being “there”.  Nothing else matters.  Nothing.

John Muir once said, “Going to the mountains is going home.”.  For me, truer words have never been spoken…