The musical amalgamation of humming motors, honking horns, and frenzied fists pounding on steering wheels, all discordantly orchestrated by the dissatisfactory timing of red and green lights, tied with the ever-accelerating alacrity of the technologies of the "now generation" and the constant thumb-tiring messaging and endless chatter that it embodies, somehow resolved our lives to some perverted status-quo that is wildly detoured from the truth. No, I have not become some John Muir journeying for answers in the depths of Alaskan waterways and icefields, nor some Christopher McCandles who shunned society for an odyssey Into the Wild, but I'm simply reflecting upon the liberation and unrestrained joy that I regularly find in a technologically detached world where the moment pervades every breath, thought, and uttered word. Liberation. No other word suffices.
Perhaps it's the caffeine from bottomless cups of diet soda coursing through my veins, or the damp residue of an overdue rainforest rain lingering on my shirt from my forest hike, or the residuum of solitary sunrise yoga, but I am undeniably under a welcomed spell of some induced meditative state. The ambient noise that unknowingly defined my life and my (un)happiness was shockingly stripped from my world the day I set foot in Glacier Bay. Figuratively disrobed and vulnerable, the simplicity of my new world suffocated me. As the ambient noise became the calls of birds in the forest, the pulse of the bay crashing upon the shore, and meditative silence that ripples across a lone forest pond, I grew aware that my life was no longer controlled by an overwhelming cacophony but instead the unbinding embrace of harmony. Instead of life racing by, here in Glacier Bay I stop to admire a purple lupine or the terminal bud of a spruce branch. My awareness is brought to the soil under my every step and my mind to the question of when blueberries and salmonberries will ripen. I find myself in this new world haulted in the rain to observe the awakening of life in the rainforest.
When the ambient noise becomes your life, you miss the beauty of the details, and the details truly are inexplicably beautiful. The aphorism states "God is in the details." I challenge you to take a moment, step outside the noise and see for yourself. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Until next time...
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Thank you for sharing this Brandon....I love it!
ReplyDeleteWow, very powerful B - thanks for sharing! Love E
ReplyDeleteI would text you while i was driving....but my damn phone is a pain in the ass.......;).....missed you so much today horse back riding in malibu......i love how inspired you are....keep it up SON.......
ReplyDeleteLots of love...C.
I love how I feel like I'm right there with you when I read your blog.....
ReplyDeletebe cautious with the bears!
Love, M
This is a wonderful piece... just excellent. I love it.
ReplyDeleteYou are an excellent writer Brandon. I love the way you use your words. You give us such an intense description that transports us there right with you!
ReplyDeleteBTW: We just got back from Mammoth for the first time & loved it--the majestic mountains still covered in snow, the trails & wildlife...bits of paradise throughout all God's good earth.
xoxo
Gerard
Alright, you need to stop using such big words! When I typed amalgamation into dictionary.com the whole damn computer froze…! And when did be complicated become so damn bad?! I mean, I love nature, Love it! What is wrong with technology? For the first time in a billion years the EARTH has created a species that has the ability to save it! When did you see a bunch of Dandelions and Zebras banning together to stop the OZONE from depleting! Ha-ha! I hate to play devil’s advocate but that’s what I’m good at! I’m enjoying your blog, and if you can’t figure out who this is, well that’s your problem.
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