Looking out, looking past and grabbing the realization

As I stood on the shore I looked out at the horizon, cognizant of the chilled air that was being warmed in my lungs and exhaled back into the world.

Realizing…

That my standing here was a metaphor of sorts.

My looking out at the horizon, past where I stood at the water’s edge.

Stood something I could see, but it was seemingly…

Out of reach … But, this short-sighted observation only tells half of the story.

Why should I limit myself to constructing barriers to what can’t be done, versus finding ways to traverse those barriers?

The memory is short and it allows me to forget my triumphs, when my slipping into the icy depths of defeat were but a formality.

But, I found stepping stones when others saw an impasse.

Why should comfort be taken in the penitentiary of “can’t” when “shall, can and will” have more upside?

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The journey isn’t far

Sometimes beauty lies in the distance …

Perliously, within our grasp, but yet so far.

The closer we get, the more obstacles see fit to present themselves.

Daring you to meet them head on…

Do you cross or stand pat?

While you debate

Those obstacles are

Scoffing at your notion

Of conquest …

But victory is your only respite

The

path

is

often

uneven.

The fruits of the journey are wrought with beauty and peril

Leaving the climax worth it…

Is like …

Life is like a mountain …

Imposing, massive, comprised of many layers and unable to vanquished …

But, a mountain, like life itself

can be traversed and by virtue of this…

Those secrets can be laid bare for those who would dare to make sense of them.

A stream is like life …

In that there is no easy way to ford it other than moving gingerly and using our lessons as stepping stones to save us from plunging into the swirling depths.

Reaching the other side is a reward in and of itself.

But like life … Time spent marveling ones ingenuity is time wasted.

Pressing ahead is a stark contrast to the expense of staying stationary with the

certainty

of being overcome by the

actuality

of

eventuality.

Life is motion and moving in constant, concerted motion should be a given, as it always affords a better view.

Something for my headache

I entered uneasy with a dull throbbing pain  reverberating throughout my head and I began to walk. I was not naive to the fact that my walking was serving as a metaphor for the toxic build up from the week that was I found myself trying to escape from.

I soaked in the sights, sounds and smell to no avail… I heard a dull drone of cars in the distance, which served to increase the power of my headache and I continued on, like a man on a mission and decidedly so, because I am literally at my wits end.

As continued walking the fog and incessant throbbing in my head began to wane somewhat and I instinctively looked up to see the point of no return.

The area that nature forbade the intrusion of all things and elements foreign to her domain. The trees and her branches were welcoming and with a relative snap of the finger the headache was gone.

In lieu of the headache being gone a backlog of clarity descended upon me and washed away all that ailed me. So I found a spot in the middle of the stream where I sat, savored and fortified myself for whatever would see fit to obstruct my path in the coming week.

The mist and the cool sensation of the water

Soothing my soul in the best way I know how – The Falls

Rocks State Park is probably one of the most serene places in Maryland.

I often find myself here when my stress load is at its apex. Like I’ve mentioned in my previous writings, water serves as a dumping ground for what could otherwise be the insanity inducing travails of life.

Often, I sit at the streambed and not unlike a file making its way to a Smartphone or a computer… I download, my eyes are like a USB cable as they provide me connectivity with the flowing current of the water.

Eventually, I break my connection with the water and make my way 190 feet up to a natural rock outcrop that was once a ceremonial gathering place for the Susquehannock, called the King & Queen seat. And I let the wind blow through my person as I survey the life that is teeming below me.

As I make my way down from the King & Queen Seat… I know I can’t leave from the confines of the park without paying my respects to the Falls.

Kilgore Falls is what makes this area so dangerous to the element of time, as I always lose track of it, sitting at the base of the falls, being covered in the cooling mist.

The beauty that is encountered on the way is no match for the splendor of the falls. I always make sure to walk slowly, to absorb every bit of the solace. Keeping my ear trained to capture the initial sound of the falls, is an exercise in suppressing the climatic moment…

As I make my way up the path to the Falls… Each time is like it is my first.

She beckons me closer and commands that I sit… I can’t resist her and I acquiesce.

My assorted flings with Mother Nature

 

I 

Unfortunately, I am not as young as I used to be, but I am as young as I often lie about being.

With that being said, I have no qualms about getting older as it is better than the alternative, of slow decomposition or inhabiting a decorative urn in the form of ashes.

With each passing day of accumulated wisdom, I have come to the realization that this uber-connected world that I make my living in is an extremely toxic environment, I find myself needing deeper excursions into the loving embrace of Mother Nature for the purpose of loosening the tentacles that dull the sense of inner peace that I feel when I’m with her.

I have always had this amorous relationship with water… The sound, the scent of it seemingly washes away whatever is burdening me and often it becomes an act of sheer willpower to peel myself away.

 

 

 

Mother Nature undoubtedly is a drug, but unlike all drugs… Can you overdose off of solace? If so, I wouldn’t mind being the first.

 

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Sometimes words… Fail. And only the “hushing” does justice

As I comb through the 200+ pictures of my travels on Hawaii’s big island, I can’t deny the magical quality of the images. Magical in the sense that I can recall the thoughts rushing through my head at the time of taking the picture as I lazily flick through each image in the present.

I sat on these rocks with the ocean lapping under my feet, lost in my thoughts, oblivious to the ebb of time. Realizing that… I never wanted to go back to the mainland.

Everywhere I looked the lush vegetation waved in the omnipresent breeze lulling me into a willing trance. As if they were asking me, “why would you ever go back to what you left?

If I didn’t know any better I’d swear that I heard “insanity” whispered in my ear by the wind.

The more I think about it, the more I am prone to believe that the wind may have had me pegged.

What I learned from the serenity of Nature and Mauna Loa

The sight, sound and scent of a living volcano gave much needed perspective to my life.

Giving me pause in realization that life is to be lived rather than squandered, once this dawned on me; I immediately felt a heavy sense of guilt at my torrential streams of complaining throughout my life, as it demostrated an acute lack of appreciation for… Life.

It did dawn on me that it wouldn’t be plausible for me to stop everytime I encountered a waterfall, but a voice inside of me countered “Why not?” And stop I did, every chance I got. Soaking in the beauty, splendor and serenity of what I came to regard as charging stations for my sanity.

Walking away the worries of the world

Kilgore Falls which is located in Rocks State Park is in my humble opinion one of the most serene places in Maryland. If you don’t know what you’re looking for you won’t find it.

As I make my way towards the falls and catch sight of; it is here when I start to hear the sounds of the cascading falls. The feeling of pent up frustration from the travails of the day start to recede.

I plant myself at the base of the falls and soak in the solace of the water hitting the rocks, with my eyes closed I happily start to lose track of where I am. The water misting my face slowly brings me back to reality.

As I make my way to the top of falls, I find a spot of the rocks to decompress looking down at the valley below.

A quick look to my right shocks me back to reality and ends my commune with nature… A snake, not just one but two… This was the only picture that I got before I ensured that I was out of range and made my way back down to the land of machines.

As it goes rushing by

I sat here transfixed by the sight, intoxicated by the sound of the water rushing by. I felt myself wishing that I could teleport myself here, whenever the weight of the world becomes too much to bear.