Inner Peace & Suburbs on the Road Less Traveled
0 Comments Published by Ster on Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 8:43 PM.
We shout “cuidado” (“careful” in Spanish) to each other as we descend into the valley hugging the river below. We need to make our way down about 200 feet to get to the crystal clear river below, but there is no path and the decline is steep… Impossible in many areas. We carefully dig our fingers into the roots of the trees above and carefully make our decent, double checking each branch, rock and root we grab onto in order to test its trustworthiness. We slowly get closer to something we haven’t seen, only heard, but we just “have a good feeling about it”.
Closer to the bottom it becomes slightly more dangerous but we see the river up close at last. About 8 feet deep in the deepest part and crystal clear green water at the foot of a waterfall. The sounds, the sights the smells are spectacular. All senses are stimulated. We get ninety percent of the way there, but we are now faced with one last obstacle. We need to trek across a fallen tree that’s covered in slippery moss. I start to make my way across to test it out but turn back because it simple wasn’t safe or intelligent. Thankfully, Sam finds a small cliff with a hollowed out tree trunk that we can hold onto while we descend the last 10 feet.
We made it all the way down, and it’s more breathtaking than we anticipated. We jumped rock to rock, trying not to get our feet wet as we make our last few steps towards a big rock in the middle of the river. We find comfort on the rock awarded to us by mother nature herself for making our journey off the beaten path 200 feet above. I looked at Sam, who was perched on the same rock as me, and said “this place is totally symbolic to all of the benefits that carving out your own route in this world has. It’s kinda like with all things… ya know? If you take the time, risk a little, and work a little harder than you would if you took the carved out path above, you will be seriously rewarded at the end. Ya heard?” ** (Footnote - 1) . I loved the symbolism and meaning in what we just did.
We waited until it started to get dark then we made our way back to the town as to not get lost in the woods at night. Getting lost at night in the woods is something I really want to do, but have yet to convince Sam that it would be fun and safe. Using the same approach as our “carve your own path” strategy earlier, we make our way back to a local general store using a new route. Unfortunately, this time we went a little too far in the wrong direction and found ourselves in the most uninspiring, run of the mill residential suburb we’ve ever been through.
Today really boils down to two lessons.
1. Beauty, meaning, love, inner peace and deep, rich experiences are found on the road less traveled
2. Apparently so are the suburbs.
Closer to the bottom it becomes slightly more dangerous but we see the river up close at last. About 8 feet deep in the deepest part and crystal clear green water at the foot of a waterfall. The sounds, the sights the smells are spectacular. All senses are stimulated. We get ninety percent of the way there, but we are now faced with one last obstacle. We need to trek across a fallen tree that’s covered in slippery moss. I start to make my way across to test it out but turn back because it simple wasn’t safe or intelligent. Thankfully, Sam finds a small cliff with a hollowed out tree trunk that we can hold onto while we descend the last 10 feet.
We made it all the way down, and it’s more breathtaking than we anticipated. We jumped rock to rock, trying not to get our feet wet as we make our last few steps towards a big rock in the middle of the river. We find comfort on the rock awarded to us by mother nature herself for making our journey off the beaten path 200 feet above. I looked at Sam, who was perched on the same rock as me, and said “this place is totally symbolic to all of the benefits that carving out your own route in this world has. It’s kinda like with all things… ya know? If you take the time, risk a little, and work a little harder than you would if you took the carved out path above, you will be seriously rewarded at the end. Ya heard?” ** (Footnote - 1) . I loved the symbolism and meaning in what we just did.
We waited until it started to get dark then we made our way back to the town as to not get lost in the woods at night. Getting lost at night in the woods is something I really want to do, but have yet to convince Sam that it would be fun and safe. Using the same approach as our “carve your own path” strategy earlier, we make our way back to a local general store using a new route. Unfortunately, this time we went a little too far in the wrong direction and found ourselves in the most uninspiring, run of the mill residential suburb we’ve ever been through.
Today really boils down to two lessons.
1. Beauty, meaning, love, inner peace and deep, rich experiences are found on the road less traveled
2. Apparently so are the suburbs.
** I may not have said “Ya heard”…
Labels: Vancouver
