Reorienting

The first evening, camped in a mountain meadow, I stepped out of the tent just in time to see the fiery red ball touch the horizon and slowly sink, leaving a rich red glow. A few twitters indicated that the birds were beginning to settle down for the night. Otherwise a deep silence filled the air. The second evening, we were forced to pitch camp high on a mountain ridge, with only a few meters of reasonably flat ridge-top. There, only a curious eagle floated past, soundlessly. As the sun slid behind the mountain peak, monster shadows rose up across the valley. The wind died, leaving a deafening, unforgiving silence.

My strongest impression after 4 days in the mountains was how insignificant humans are in the nature of things. These majestic scenes alternated with the daytime chaos of hordes of butterflies, blinding batting into my face, filigree blue, black and white striped, pseudo-monarch orange. In one meadow of eremurus, dozens slaked their thirst on the long stems with their pink and white flowers shooting up to eye-level. You could easily pick one off to examine, as Dima delighted in doing, and relaunch it into flight. Sitting for a well-deserved rest, I looked down to see dozens of tiny ants frantically feasting on a small caterpillar, busily moving around and over each other, guided by some otherworldly force.

On the third day, worried that we would run out of water, we changed our route, plowing down through wild undergrowth in the rocky course for spring runoff. Massive, flat leaves slapped my face. Rushes towered over my head. It was as if I was pushing through a crowd of fat and thin men rooted in their tracks. Romantic in retrospect if not at the time. In the distance, a cuckoo filled the mountain air with its sad sweet song.

These were the important things happening around me, oblivious to the two-legged intruders in their midst. My role was merely to observe and admire the dazzling dance of life around. How valuable is was to reorient my thoughts, trapped in a homocentric world bent on self-destruction.