I would climb a thousand feet and a thousand more until my legs burned, and my lungs burst. Because nothing is as great a reminder that the world is bigger and brighter than we could ever imagine – that we shine when we give ourselves permission to breathe fully, to surrender recklessly, to soar exquisitely.
My heart is as vast and complicated and strong as the forests and the mountains and the sea. So I have to be challenged. I have to grow. I have to breathe oxygen in ways I’ve never breathed before. Only then does my soul truly come alive – out there in the wild, in the wide, untamable unknown.
I need more.
More mountains where my soul soars.
More sunsets where my heart burns.
More rivers where my fears cease.
More wilderness where my spirit knows nothing but freedom.
More adventures –
Those random, I don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into
But I’m here and I’m going for it kind of adventures.
More laughs –
Those belly-aching, gut-wrenching
I know all of your quirks and weirdness
And still find you hilarious laughs.
More cries –
Those let me be brutally honest with you,
Real with you,
Know that you understand my darkness and are with me
And for me in spite of anything kind of cries.
More love –
Those unashamed, wave a banner in the air,
You make me crazy and giddy and soft
Moments where I can’t help but love you
In the biggest way kind of love.
This – this is the simplest but truest kind of living.
And I want nothing more
Than to live.
When my heart feels sad for a hundred different reasons, there’s always the sea – soothing me with its waves. Mountains – inspiring me with their strength. Desert – reminding me that even in the dust and barrenness, beauty exists. And if nature weren’t enough, then comes music. Notes and words and feelings all juxtaposed together somehow making sense of the sadness, the madness, the brilliant, brilliant mess. And in that moment of utterly losing myself to the wind and the earth and the songs – the stories reminding me of ones greater than my own – I find a little bit of myself I thought I’d lost. In that moment, I am free.