Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee _____________________ Cool gusts of fresh mountain wind, fluffy clouds, and rolling stacks of trees is free to me. I close my eyes and all I feel is this type of free. Sometimes we stumble upon this feeling and other times we build to reach the moment we get such a release. These moments are so nice. I am grateful for them.
Silence and strangers. _____________________ This kid and I exchanged no words when we met. I held up my camera and he immediately got in position to pose. The only sound he made was an amazed “oooh” after I showed him his picture. Yet, that “oooh” and my smile in response was all the conversation that was necessary. Sometimes there is a lot understood when strangers meet in silence.
You can be little and have superpowers. In fact, it is kids who are most likely to use their powers the best. _____________________ This girl certainly possessed some important powers. After her mother left to work, this little girl emerged from her tiny shed-like home. She gathered her two little brothers, bathed them, fed them, and then walked them to school. Any 8 year old who is tasked with that certainly must have superpowers.
I think we would be much better off if we put more care towards thinking and acting like children. They get it. _____________________ I watched this kid run up and down the street with his soccer ball every morning for a week straight. I’m sure that if I kept paying attention I’d see the same every week. The best way to start to a day is being alive like this. Forget grabbing the phone first thing in the morning, let’s kick the ball instead.
Every new year, I use to always hope that we’d finally invent the three course dinner gum that was in Willy Wonka. _____________________ I can wait on the gum in 2019. What I really want to see is significant progress in combating the growing impact of climate change on our planet. I worked to make my own life highly sustainable last year, but the real progress is made when systems change and widespread action occurs. Our world is too beautiful and too valuable to suffer any further. My goal is to help stop the suffering. I hope this is the year.
The end of the year is the perfect time for reflecting on all the best of the past 365. Shoutout Obama on his list. _____________________ I journal everyday and in looking back this day was one of my favorites of this year. To get to here, we had to snowshoe across a frozen lake and then hike up a snow packed incline somewhere deep inside the park. At the top, we watched as the sun set over the mountains and snow began to fall on us. Just like this year, the journey made the view even better.
Looking up isn’t always our first action when we see beauty. Yet, when we do look up, the feeling is worthwhile. _____________________ Standing amongst the giant sequoias is when looking up is the required and most impressive view. The massive trees force one to pause and scan from forest floor to as high up as possible to take in the greatness. In a world where we spend most of our day looking down at a screen, it is always great to take in the beauty that challenges us to look up.
“Most people are on the world, not in it.” - John Muir _____________________ There are some 7.53 billion people chilling on this orb of life. Exploring and seizing the most out of our place on this world is an important goal. Through lots of curiosity, appreciation, and adventure - no matter how big or small - we ensure that we find ourselves as an active element of the magnificence.
How do I make it feel more Jurassic Park like is a question I ask myself anytime I am out and exploring. _____________________ Some of the coolest parts of our world provide us with beauty and then inspire us to imagine more. This is true of the Yosemite floor. For me, I just need to look and then the beauty of the gushing waterfalls, the sun kissed towering rocks, and the flowing expanse of green does the rest.