I have become comfortable, and lost sight of what I have come to love about my country. Our mountains, our waterfalls, our valleys, our forests, all of our natural land… the harmony which is created by the wonders of God and is imparted upon us. Things I readily understand and am tightly bound to. I have always felt the mountains were where I could truly call home. Where I felt like I could observe the creations of God, and worship these creations.

However I have ashamedly fallen to the blunder of chasing numbers. I have lost sight of what compels me, internally, driven by God and my own love and appreciation for the natural Earth. These things have been cast aside and taken place by the next grade, the next highest peak, the next increment in difficulty. I have averted my attention to the next identifiable striation in the leg muscles which ascend me to the top. I have focused my goals on climbing the next grade of difficulty.

These things have aided in me losing sight of who I truly am, and I question the source of these new motivations. It seems so unnatural to move through God’s creation simply for the sake of touting an achievement. What I seem to have lost sight of is that the simple exploration and sight of something not yet seen is THE reason for my being. Anyone with the right gear and training can move up the most difficult of mountains in the most difficult of seasons. But it takes a special someone to be able to move through the simplest of terrain and be able to find and recognize true love. Love that is capable of bringing tears to my eyes by the simple invocation of seeing a simple beauty for the first time. To be able to see something as a pure creation of God, placed there for my appreciation and even worship, is something that should not be lost sight of.

It is so simple to segregate yourself from nature. To believe that humans and nature are two separate entities is in my opinion disingenuous to the understanding of your own soul. Humans are a part of nature – created by nature – and there is no easy way to separate the two without an arrogant assumption akin to humans ruling nature. I wish to experience the natural world and feel connected to it – as if I am truly a part of it. I have torn my body apart to get to the next level, and have forgotten – or rather, had a momentary lapse – one of the reasons I exist.