D300 - 24 mm, 1/320 sec f/18, ISO 200Desert plains, towering mountains and icy valleys are a magnet to my soul. Once there I am tested and I know I am not ready. A quiet mind and a steady will are like a compass, on a path where cold and desolation are on the surface and heavenly beauty lies just underneath.
These places forgive neither boldness nor carelessness. There is no goal, no peak to climb, no enterprise to imitate. The only meaningful outcome is understanding and respect.
When fondly remembering the steps once taken with trembling feet, I feel I have moved a little further on a path, whose end I shall never know.
These places forgive neither boldness nor carelessness. There is no goal, no peak to climb, no enterprise to imitate. The only meaningful outcome is understanding and respect.
When fondly remembering the steps once taken with trembling feet, I feel I have moved a little further on a path, whose end I shall never know.
Simply beautiful, -a-c-. Thank you. We do not often know the path we should take when we step out to begin anew. We do not often know which way when all roads seem infinitely long and winding. But without effort we would not move at all. There would not be a set determination or discovery. Set out always on the path to your dreams; you never know where the road might lead, whether you reach the pinnacle or not. It's in the journey.
ReplyDelete@ Judith: well said Judith. It's in the journey!
ReplyDeleteChilling thoughts...
ReplyDeleteYou know, recently I have been thinking a lot about these questions. For long, I too thought that 'it's the journey'. Though not anymore; not quite. If it is JUST the journey -irrespective of its result- why do you start it at all? After all, life as such is a journey itself. If you sit down and do not move for a hundred years, that is a journey, too. Life goes by you, just like the fields pass by while sitting in a train.
No, I think, it is something more. In all of us there is a creative force, which wants to achieve something. Something which usually hidden from us. The determination, the effort are all rooted there. If your way is aligned to this momentum, then you live as you should be. Then it is the journey. 'Coz you let this motive to blossom. What blossom, it does not matter; whether it is worth for others, whether it is a great or tiny accomplishment for mankind. But the journey only is THE journey, if it fulfills the deepest dream of the Soul.
@ dmartini: very keen remark. Indeed, a pointless journey wouldn't be much worthy. There is however a non trivial risk in pursuing goals as we rarely understand what we should do (in your words, knowing whether our way is aligned). Most goals are like ghosts which are put there for the sake of making us turning our head. Only rarely are these goals worth pursuing.
ReplyDeleteThe "making it blossom" is the expression I like most.
Thank you very much for your comment.
Non ti dico cosa mi ha tradotto google...perchè non l'ho capito neppure io.
ReplyDeleteQuesto è un grosso handicap al quale devo rimediare...cmq bella la foto :)
@ amaramara: domani sera ti traduco io direttamente... non ti preoccupare!
ReplyDeleteSimple and eloquent, Andrea. The stillness of mountain, deserts, to me, is calming. And yet nature brings on change in its own quiet steady way. Our lives may be about a burst of events or their slow progression but the important thing is to find and hang on to the inner calm.
ReplyDeletei've wandered back here via dmartini's blog post on your post...i am in no way philosophically sophisticated enough to comment, but one line jumps out~~ 'heavenly beauty lies just underneath'. i feel like this all the time. in the midst of very hard times, i have always felt that undercurrent...as though we are veiled from the whole truth & if we knew it, we would not want to stay here. & yet, here is so beautiful, often in stark ways.
ReplyDelete