The Mountains Called….

Two of my favorite sayings came to mind some time ago and inspired me to look for peace in nature. “The mountains are calling and I must go” by John Muir, and “not all those who wander are lost” by J.R.R. Tolkien. They replayed in my mind as I went through one of the most trying times in my life.

A few months ago, I was bedridden and broken. Not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually. I knew that at the other end of the pain was my health and well-being, but I felt shattered. Years of bad decisions and neglect had come back to haunt me. But I still had hope, and a plan. I wanted to see beauty….

I’ve lived in Colorado for almost twenty years and spent almost twenty before that in Florida. People would ask me why I preferred Colorado to Florida. I’d point to the mountains and say, “I never woke up to see the beach every morning.” I saw the mountains, yes, but I didn’t see the mountains. It was one thing on a list I keep in my head of things I wanted to do but never got around to doing. But laid up in bed, in near-constant pain, I swore to myself that I would not just see the mountains, but I would experience the mountains.

Once on my feet, days turned into weeks turned into months, and I never set foot beyond the foothills of Boulder. They taunted me, the mountains, and teased me. “Liar,” I felt them call me. “You swore to your wife and kids that you’d visit us but there you are, back in your mundane life.” I’d sigh and think to myself “soon.”

One morning I was driving west into Boulder. The fog was thick and the clouds low. I couldn’t see the mountains for most of the trip. It seemed sudden, but the fog and clouds parted and left me speechless. There they were, in all their splendor. I found myself one day wandering up a mountain road, with no idea what was there and no destination in mind. The drive was peaceful, the trees and mountains all around embraced me. I felt a calm that I hadn’t known in a long time.

I pulled into a small parking lot overlooking Boulder. It was magnificent. The city laid before me, and the plains beyond. I sat down on a bench and took in the beauty that surrounded me. I went home and told my wife about the road, and that week we took a trip up the mountain to the end of the road. We stopped at a reservoir and hiked through the forest. My kids hadn’t experienced the mountains like this before, so I got to see it through their eyes. My wife and daughter climbed to a vantage point and took pictures. We passed deer on the way back down the mountain. We hadn’t spent quality time together like that in years.

It was a wonderful experience, to pick a road and follow it to its end, enjoying the beauty of nature along the way. We wandered but were lost only in the absolute beauty and wonder of Colorado. I had fulfilled my promise to myself and to the mountains.