One Mountain to the Next

From the Colorado Rockies to the Sierras of California I have once again decided to relocate my home in my journey of self discovery.  The hardest thing about my restless life, a life filled with an endless yearning for motion, is saying goodbye.  I love developing new friendships and sharing my experiences with others while hearing about theirs.  This is what makes a life filled with travel one of constant excitement and fills it with value.  However, the desire for novel experience inevitably leads to a lot of goodbyes.  In the past year I've lived in five locations for a month or more and had significant experiences with people on shorter excursions in between.  I find deep personal connections with people that I've known for only a short period of time.  Change can be hard but usually I am greeted in a new location by a scene of natural beauty that shows me I am on the right path.

This time that experience was my first sight of the Sierras in eight months.  I had been on the road for 10 hours and had just driven through the lowest point, and one of the hottest places, in the U.S. Death Valley.  I was anxiously watching the temperature gauge on my car over the final rise out of Death Valley.  When I looked up from the dash I was breathless at the scene in front of me.  The early evening light dropped through the overlaying cloud layer.  Delicate sunbeams snuck through the undulations in the ridgeline and fell on the dust that had been swirled in the air by the unimpeded winds of the Owen's Valley.  Instead of the clarity and certainty one would hope to see in their future at this moment I saw mystery.  This unknown path that I have embarked upon is what excites me and propels me in my journey through life.  While I know that I must say goodbyes I continue to greet each new experience and personal connection as an essential ingredient in the melting pot of my soul.