a teacup full of sky
a teacup full of sky / words and pictures #11
Back a few stories ago I was contemplating God in my coffee cup and choosing a hiking backpack.
A few weeks ago I put that pack to good use on a 90km, five-day hike, and contemplated the sky in my teacup - amongst other golden moments.
I imagined I would come back with volumes of stories to tell… But a funny thing happens when you slow down, quieten down, and strip life back to the simplicity of eating, sleeping, walking, and being another creature in nature…
There’s less to say.
What I noticed is that away from the constant whirlpool of daily news, information, and the general buzz of human life in motion – there is a calm, continuous constancy to the forest.
It is there, the trees continue to grow and whisper in the wind, the flowers bloom, the insects crawl, the ground holds firm, the sun rises and sets, and the sky continues to stretch over all of it.
It was comforting.
Each day had a rhythm… Awake, dress, eat, pack up camp, pack bags, then set out for the day. A couple of stops along the way for tea and snacks, arrive at camp, set-up, cook, eat, wash, sleep… Then do it all again.
It surprised me that this daily rhythm of waking and sleeping with the sun and attending to the needs of a human body took up most of the day.
It was nice. To just exist.
And in amongst that rhythm there were many wonderful little moments that reminded me that the destination is always found when you can arrive at the present moment.
And I drew pictures of some of those…
Small quiet things, like a bee silhouetted against the mid-morning sun, collecting pollen from flowering grass trees.
Stopping to make coffee on a little hiking stove in the middle of the forest after a morning of walking.
Wow, total bliss!
Colourful wildflowers waiting to be discovered around every corner.
Arriving at camp, sitting on a log, making tea and staring at the sky reflected in the top of my cup.
Taking boots off at the end of each day to free my toes, and the bizarre joy of caring for blisters.
And also...
Planning the trip, packing my bag (and unpacking half of it thanks to my hiking companion who is much better at minimalism than me), feeling the energy of the forest, setting up camp each afternoon, cooking simple meals on the tiny camp stove, washing my sweaty body with a pot of hot water in the fading dusk, chatting joking philosophising and sweet silences with a great friend, drifting to sleep at the end of a day of walking and waking up with the sun and the birds to a new day with nothing more to do than walk.
“Enjoy the little things in life because one day you`ll look back and realize they were the big things.”
― Kurt Vonnegut Jr
Depending on where you are in the world and what's going down for you right now, that might mean sitting in your garden, gazing lovingly at a house plant, calling a friend, sleeping in, taking a bath, reading all day, standing on your head, listening to music, playing an instrument, cooking something delicious, or whatever the hell makes the moment golden for you.
Leonie x
