Appreciating the Blues
Achievement comes down to a science. Like climbing a mountain, you train hard, figure out the process, put in the hours and trust that eventually you will reach your Summit. But appreciation, noticing and feeling a sense of gratitude for the moments along the way, waking up each morning and falling in love with the world is an art. There is perhaps nothing harder than managing both at the same time.
Imagine that you are perched atop the mountain peak pictured above. The air is thin and from this altitude, it looks like you can see the curvature of the earth. To the north, far ahead in the distance, is a cerulean-tinged mountain range. Emotions and desire rumble in the pit of your stomach. You feel drawn to your Summit, like a moth to a dancing flame, you feel an intense sense of urgency to climb and conquer that magnificent blue mound, to bathe in the cool refreshing blueness… only one problem, they’re not actually blue, your brain is tricking you.
You: “Are you colourblind, those mountains are clearly BLUE.”
Yourself: “*Ahem* actually nope, they’re not.”
That alluring shade of blue is not a trait of the mountains themselves, but rather as Rebecca Solnit points out, an illusion caused by light being dispersed through the molecules of air between here and there.
Go forth. Imagine immensities and chase down your Summit! But be sure to savour the multitude of moments — the atmospheric gap — that fills the temporal distance in-between.
