Mountains

 I just love mountains. Whether it’s the view once you get up to the top, or staring up at a magnificent snow-capped peak from the valley below, they have a presence that dominates. I have spent many serene moments sitting t the top of a pass and staring at the scenes around me. I can’t think of too many more relaxing things to do.

There is silence. There is often a gentle, cool breeze drifting down from above. There is the sun that glistens off the top of the peaks, where the snow and ice still hugs the rock.

At night you can still feel the presence of the mountains towering over you. They have a sense of weight, of gravity, pulling you towards them. They block out the stars with their bulk and the ice reflects the twinkling stars.

Lying on your back watching the clouds swirl around a peak, each little eddy curling back on itself; listening to the rumbling of distant avalanches; sinking your hands into the fresh icy snow as you sit looking down into a valley from the top of a mountain; drinking a cup of lemon tea as you just appreciate the serenity; these are all magical experiences.

There is just something very comforting about mountains; they provide an aesthetic experience, and if you are so inclined, a physical one. A world without mountains would be a poor world indeed.

Table Mountain (7100m), taken from the village of Chozo on the Snowman Trek in Bhutan, 2007)

A Day with Nothing Planned

    

There is something rather wonderful about waking up in the morning knowing that there is no urgency to get out of bed. You can simply lie there and watch the light brighten the room. For busy people these days are like gold. You can stretch and glory in the fact that you did not need to set the alarm; you might even want to turn over, hug your pillow and snooze for another half-an-hour.

Then you can have a leisurely breakfast while you unhurriedly read the paper and consider what you want to do with your time. If it is a nice day you might take a book outside and sit in the sun; if it is a cold day you might decide to stay in watch some television. Sometimes you might decide to stroll up the cinema and watch a movie in the middle of the day, or go down to the beach to swim in the glorious ocean.

Days where you have nothing planned give you time to think about things in a clear and undistracted way. They remind us of what a day is, and the fact that we often don’t appreciate how precious days are because we are so busy. Days with nothing planned is 24 hours of total ‘me’ time that is all your own. Treasure them.

Sunset

Let’s get back to something that happens every day, just like sunrise. I’m talking about sunset. It is one of the most beautiful times of the day.

It happens no matter where you are; up in the mountains watching the sun drop between two snow-capped peaks, it’s rays glistening off the ice against a darkening sky; sitting on your back porch watching the sunset between the trees while you sip a cool drink; and my personal favourite, sitting a beach looking to the west at the end of a summer’s day.

On such days the sea breeze has stopped blowing and I am sitting on the warm sand, feeling it's rough texture between my toes before the cool ocean washes rhythmically up the slope to gently cleanse the skin.

On the horizon the sky has begun to cycle through its evening colours that reflect off the base of the clouds, providing an ever-changing oil painting for a view. The blue is replaced by a bright yellow that then fades into an orange when the sun finally lowers itself beneath the horizon. The sea is then a brilliant blue against the still light sky, before that colour fades to grey with the departing light.

Then a deep scarlet hue infuses itself across the cloud base, before it gradually fades to a darkening purple.  At this time the brighter stars are poking through the gloom and night is encroaching. Soon the light will have gone completely.

All you are left with the gentle puffs off the cool humid air that carries the memory of a summer’s day and leaves the taste of salt on your lips. Just perfect.

A Small Win

Forget the big mega lottery wins, which often bring stress and anxiety, it’s the small wins that provide moments of pure happiness.

When you’ve bought your scratch-and-win game and the numbers come up that signify you have won five or ten, or even 100 dollars, you feel elated. Similarly when you put your lottery ticket in the machine and it comes up with Congratulations – Winner you know that some money is coming your way.  Most of the time it’s only twenty dollars or so, but it means that you can buy a bottle of wine, have an extra cup of coffee or tea at a café, or it can go into the jar marked ‘Holiday Spending Money’ that will go towards making your next vacation more enjoyable. You might even use it to put into somebody’s birthday card as a gift, or buy a bunch of flowefs for somebody who is feeling down. You can do something useful with this win either for yourself or somebody else.

Then there is the fun in sitting down with your lottery ticket and checking it against the winning numbers. As you go through and you realise you’ve achieved a win, your evening is made. Fortune has smiled on you and it feels good! A totally random bonus.  

It’s these little wins that come along with surprising regularity that help make the days brighter and happier.

The Night Sky

The Night Sky

When the night draws back the curtains to reveal the universe within which we live, I find myself gazing upwards in wonder. Light is reaching us over unimaginable distances, distances that would blow your mind. And that light has taken thousands of years to get here. What we actually see is what once was, not what now is. We are looking directly into the past. Wow! A colleague of mine once told me that Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years - well he said absolutely everybody would come to see it. And I think he's right.

Those distant twinkling points of light, the blues, reds, whites, greens and oranges (if you ever get a chance to see The Jewel Box formation, you'll see all of these colours - it's magnificent) might even harbour life. How amazing is that? Are there planets circling those far off stars? If you can escape the city lights you’ll see the Milky Way, our home galaxy, stretching across above you – vast gas clouds obscuring some of the stars, the centre a dense, if distant, white mist of light full of countless stars, and perhaps even a large black hole.

 And if you look hard enough, or are fortunate enough to have a telescope, you might even see distant galaxies, collections of billions of stars slowly spinning tens of thousands of light years away, maybe even further. We are in a big, big universe and every night we get to see it, to gaze up and see our home. It’s awesome.

To cap it off you may be lucky enough to see a shooting star tear across the sky, a brilliant ephemeral streak of light that sparkles into obscurity. Once or twice I fancy I heard them – a faint ripping sound. When I worked in the Kimberly I made a rule that I would see five before I went to sleep each night, and I was rarely disappointed. I was looking for diamonds, but the only ones I saw were in the sky – but they outshone everything else.

Your Bed

 Your bed ...what more do I really have to say? We all know and love our beds; they are our best friends. After you've have had a busy day, be it good or bad, sinking into your bed is pure joy.

 When your muscles are fatigued, your brain is fried, or you're simply just partied out, your bed welcomes you into its warm embrace. Your pillow gently cradles your head and you begin to drift into that period of semi-consciousness. For a few moments you can feel your body becoming pleasantly heavy under the weight of the blankets. Your think hazy half-coordinated thoughts as you fade out. You never remember going to sleep - how could you?  But you sleep the best deep sleep imaginable.

 Then you wake up the next morning feeling refreshed and relaxed, a nice tingle courses through your muscles as you stretch under the covers. You're just happy to lie there for a while as light infiltrates the room telling you that another day has arrived.  You cling to the pillow, reluctant to move from this moment of absolute bliss, but your sleep has energised you and soon you are up and about, motivated and ready for anything.

Your bed is one of those small things that make life grand! Treasure your relationship with it.

That Song...

I could just dribble for a while as a sort of introduction, but I will resist the temptation and jump straight into the small things that bring joy to life.

That Song…

 There is a moment that happens out of the blue. It usually happens when you are in the middle of cleaning the bathroom, the kitchen, or the oven (well perhaps not the oven. I might happen when you are in the middle of dealing with a pile of paperwork, bills etc. It might even happen when you are cooking a meal, writing a book, washing the car, or maybe even just reading the paper top catch up on the latest disasters and incompetence of politicians.

Then you hear the first bars of a song on the radio. This is a song that takes you back to a great time in your life. It might be to do with a great time of your youth - your first crush at high school for instance, a great event at university, a personal achievement that made you feel on top of the world. Before you know it your foot starts tapping and your fingers follow along; your head begins to bob to the beat and you find yourself mouthing the words to yourself. Your knee then starts flexing,  encouraging your hips to move to the rhythm. Arm movements follow and then suddenly you are down on your knees air-guitaring  the guitar solo or dancing like a maniac around the room, the garden, or the office, singing in your toneless voice.

This is a priceless moment (and not just for those lucky enough to see you making a twat of yourself)  that lifts you up for the whole day. You can’t help but feel better for it – the mundane reality has been pushed to one side, washed away by a moment of pure uninhibited joy. It’s the little things…