The Pandemic is weird.
Things are difficult for everyone. Someway or the other.
There are things going around with my life too. And, here I am writing about the person in me who has love for mountains, winds and nature.
One of my biggest concerns at the start of the pandemic was not about the bread crumbs, parties or toilet paper. It was more selfish than that.
After what I feel like a decade. The news anchor who usually works like a black raven, came like a swan by the lake, and reported that parks, gardens and mountains would be open.
I wake up excited. Search for my favorite pair of shoes, find them nicely wrapped under the dust. Pandemic did them a favour. Normally they don’t get to settle anywhere this long. I put on my small backpack and grabbed my three partners – my dairy, my pen and my kindle. And, I put on a mask. Not the invisible mask everyone’s been putting on for years. The visible one which fights the virus. Again, not the virus of evil. The novel coronavirus.
I don’t plan for the trek.
I would sit by the mountain, taking some fresh air, hearing the birds chirping.
I reach. I walk. Take small steps towards the mountain. It looks far.
I find myself half the way, jumping across the barrier between the garden and the mountain. The sun starts to come up. Gets brighter with every second. The clouds look red and yellow as the blue holds them all together, like a canvas of an artist with adorable imagination.
I feel the pull. I walk faster. And, I run.
I run like a thief. I jump, slide and smile like a kid. Almost slipping and falling.
Sweat starts dripping and the legs feel heavy. It doesn’t matter. There is no fear. There are no thoughts.
And, I’m here. At the top, where I sit. Feel the stillness in nature. I take in the present. Not wanting to change anything of it.
The moment you realize you are not present, you are present. Whenever you are able to observe your mind, you are no longer trapped in it. Another factor has come in, something that is not of the mind: the witnessing presence.
Eckhart Tolle
As I write this, the moment’s long gone. Not the present anymore.
We are trapped in our thoughts. Either about the past or the future. While everything that matters stays in the present.