The Greatest Teacher

El Chaltén, Santa Cruz, Argentina

Maybe we’re just here to learn to lessons from this wild world

To see our own beauty in whatever view catches our eyes

To feel our power among the mountains that graze the sky, in the rivers that carve the earth

To see our hopes & dreams in the stars, only out of reach if we so believe

To accept our depths, like the oceans, cannot be fully explored – for the waters are constantly moving, ever-changing 

To honor our seasons, no matter how deeply we yearn to bloom

To understand fires rage often not destruction, but clear that which cannot bear fruit

To see there is always another mountain to climb

To take less seriously the emotions that cloud & darken, yet always clear, our skies

To fight not against the winds that knock us off our path & into unknown lands 

To go inwards when the world chills & venture out when it thaws

To protect ourselves according to the elements upon which we brave the world

To slow when the way becomes slippery or unsteady

To be nourished by what grows, trusting it will grow back in abundance

To witness the extreme opposites of our poles

To know the sun will shine again, no matter how long the darkness overcomes us

And that somethings bloom just for the sake of being looked upon with awe

Such are her lessons & many, many more. 

Every time I walk upon her, she gifts me with her wisdom, with some grander view than I could ever see on my own. Our eyes ever needing a mirror, something outside of ourselves to clearly see within

Maybe it’s because she’s sat silently, and not so silently, in the background, witnessing our plights and fights and grandest victories. 

Or maybe it’s because we chose her to be home

For whatever reason, nature, this world, is, perhaps, our greatest teacher

Should we choose to let her