If you stay lost in the wild long enough, you'll find yourself.
My plans for 2020 were laughed at by the universe, and many of them were subject to change at the drop of a hat. I didn’t want to get too far ahead and set myself up for possible disappointment, but I also wanted to have tangible goals moving forward into the New Year. So, when it came time for me to decide what my New Year’s Resolutions were, I decided to push the amount from a handful to 365 New Years’ Resolutions.
Perhaps, like me, he walked into the woods with the reverence of an eager nun willing to devote their time to a place that reminded them of creation itself. Imaginably the Beethoven of the woods allowed himself to be freed from the world's complicated structures by nature and let his mind wander beyond the symphony of foliage and into magnificent new worlds.
In between the sea of black that is freckled with brilliant opalescent stars and the golden haze from the morning sun is the dark blue ocean of twilight. It is in this time before the dawn when you will usually find me sliding a backpack and trekking poles out of my car and readying myself for an attempt to ascend to a mountain summit. My thoughts are typically the same. It is very early. Why am I doing this? As I lock the door to my car and join a group of other similarly tired-looking hikers, I think, well, I’m already here, and I’ve made it this far.
Chaos of explosions has erupted around you in less time than it takes for you to blink an eye. As you draw in your next breath, an electrical circuit of neurons fire to create a fleeting contemplation, and without any record of this emission, it vanishes.
It’s important to reflect on and reset your state of mind in order to grow and evolve into a better version of yourself. You just need to take a deep breath and pause for a moment to collect the unique compilation of the pieces of yourself before moving forward on your life’s journey. You can learn a lot from yourself when you meditate. You just have to take the time to listen.
It always helps me to stop and take a second for myself when I think that I have gotten terribly lost on a hike. I calm my breathing, check my GPS tracker, and look for the clues surrounding me to put me back where I need to be. In life, I try to rest and relish in the section of time I set aside to reflect on the path in which I came. I’ll even, occasionally, look through the lens pointed at my past through previous journal entries and blog posts. I then bring my thoughts to the present and look deep within myself to point me in the correct direction to achieve my desired goals. It’s as though you are a daring explorer in a foreign land or a brave captain on an uncharted sea, referring to a map that you are sketching along the way.
I decided to finally hike to the highest peak in Los Angeles. I packed my hiking bag, took a sweater, and climbed to an elevation of 10,064 feet.
What if the way in which we think about ourselves gets destroyed, and we lose those experiences that are kept as memories? What if we are no longer able to think about ourselves and the world around us in the way in which we are used to? Do we lose a part of ourselves that has helped shape our personality?
Dusty yearbooks were peeking out from underneath mountains of old notepads filled with scribbled interviews in shorthand. I found extra camping dishes waiting patiently in the corner to be used out in the wilderness. However, the most important thing that I had found among the forgotten items was a lost old letter addressed to me.
Perhaps this is why the crow always gets a bad rap? Perhaps their ominous history of negative stereotypes precedes them and is attached to randomized events with adverse outcomes furthering their haunting demeanor? I suppose I will never know.
