Day 2,868

The nice thing about creating a blog is that I can change the rules as I see fit based on how I’m feeling and where my thoughts are taking me. The objective is to spend time focused on reflecting on what I am grateful for throughout the day. In so many ways it is a much needed opportunity to pause life and dive inside to remind myself to be appreciative of all the blessings the day has provided. While I have been focused on a Growth, Appreciation, and Presence based format my thoughts on the hiking trail today have led me towards one specific train of thought so I’m going to roll with it tonight and will likely get back on the normal track tomorrow.

Throughout the past few days we’ve been surrounded by the mountains. The behemoths seems to constantly remind me of just how small I am in the big picture of things. They completely dominate the landscape and are only seen in partiality, one must travel over them in order to start to soak up their massiveness. There’s another way that they leave me seeing my place in the universe…

One constant on this trip has been the power of time. I get frustrated when I pull up to a stoplight that just turned red, when I have to wait in a line at the grocery store, or for a variety of things that cause me to feel like I am missing precious seconds or a moment. Seconds. Moments. God forbid I lose an hour or more! I measure life in moments, hours, days, weeks. In the extreme I may even measure it in years.

While hiking the valley carved out by a glacier I couldn’t help but focus on the smooth rippled rock I was stepping on. The rock was slowly carved and smoothed by the grinding of glaciers and sand over thousands of years. Literally ages. The glacier ice that has since receded and stood sentinel above us is older than I am by hundreds of years. The ice makes my life look life a flash in the pan!

The mountains themselves are an entirely different story. These specific mountains were created over ONE HUNDRED MILLION years ago. If I lived 1.2 million lifetimes I still wouldn’t have been around to see them. They were slowly created by the pressure of plates pressing against each other for a wildly long period of time that my brain can’t even being to fully comprehend. The mountains tower over me and have been around long before humans and will continue to be here long after us. Another way in which they put me in my place and help me see just how small I am – in size and time. What a powerfully humbling realization / recognition.

The way that I see time sometimes needs to be slowed. Pause and remember that time stretches on much longer than I realize. Yes, sometimes the seconds matter, but more often it is okay to slow down and let nature take its course.

Time moves differently for humans and mountains, but there is much to be learned from in that difference. Sometimes the greatest and grandest things in life take a very long time to shape and form, don’t rush them, let nature run its course.

This trip has been an awesome opportunity to spend time in quiet thought and contemplation in addition to spending time with family. I’m grateful for the ways the concept of time have started to work their ways into my brain. It seems there’s something here I really need to learn. Mountains – I’m here and I’m listening.

Thanks!!!