THE WILDERNESS

It centers you, focuses your priorities, rearranges what you think of as important. It tests you and refines your character, like carbon deep underground being pressed into a diamond. Out there in nature, surrounded by trees and rocks for miles and miles, you gain a different perspective of life. I call this the “Top of the Mountain” perspective.

There’s nothing like sitting on a granite slab at 14,495 feet watching the deep, burnt orange glow of a sunrise unfold before you… or staring up from the flat of your back, nestled into a warm sleeping bag, while shooting stars flash across a night sky. The sense of accomplishment that fills you, the challenges presented before you, the mental and physical trials, the camaraderie, all leading toward one goal: a new perspective.  You don’t know that’s the goal though, because to you the goal is the peak or the lake or the next campsite. But what happens when you achieve those goals? Something changes inside of you. Either you discover some part of you that you didn’t realize was there, rediscover a piece that was suppressed, or find that a new part of you has been created. When you get to the top of that mountain and gaze down at all the wilderness you came through and everything beyond that, something clicks inside. You know you won’t be the same person that you were when you left civilization for that adventure, because a piece of you has become something else… something wild.