“Sometimes, I love the simplicity of glacier life. Everything is reduced to the basics: melting snow for water, putting up a tent for shelter, wearing many layers to stay warm, resting from the walk in and recovering for tomorrow. With things this simple it’s easier to notice that you’re alive, (and when was the last time you remembered to notice?) Perhaps it’s just that the mountains invite a readier contrast between blood and sentience, and the impassive expanse of ice and rock. And perhaps that’s in part what I love about being up there: the special warmth in a cup of tea, the incomparable richness of a hot meal, or the gratitude to a sleeping bag which has gathered body heat only to reflect it back?”
From an article about climbing in Patagonia, from Ben Winston photography
This struck me as being very similar to the attraction of a long ocean passage. The only long distance offshore sailing I’ve done is racing, but in all the reading I’m doing there’s definitely a recurring theme. Cut out the crap in life. Go back to basics. Enjoy now. Here’s a passage from “Across Islands and Oceans”, by James Baldwin, his account of a round the world trip he made in his early twenties:
“With long hours of little else to do, I worked to cultivate a freedom from anticipation – that urgent thief who steals the minute-to-minute awareness of life… I reconfirmed here a lesson I’m condemned to learn over and over again: our days are stolen by our constant grasping at the phantoms of a future happiness as we think about living – rather than living itself – trapping us in our yesterdays and tomorrows.”
Planning is great fun. I definitely get a stack load of excitement from thinking about adventures that lie ahead. And looking back on memories is great too – it’s why I’m putting time into this blog after all. But getting the most from the present moment, every day, is something I’m trying to do more of as well. Slowing down. Looking around. Soaking things up more. Learning how to play this big, crazy game called life.
Road and Ocean 