Story

Here and Now. With a big dramatic sigh of relief, I quickly swung my front door open to escape the freezing night air. Stepping into the cold, empty silence of my long forgotten home, I shrugged the heavy weight of my bags off their perch on my shoulders. One by one they fell to the ground, their dull thud breaking the quiet calm that had taken hold. The strain and underlying stress of living on the road for the last two weeks quickly faded away as I kicked off my boots and disappeared under the warm embrace of pillows tumbling from the top of my couch. From mountain hot springs and frozen alpine lakes to last minute flights and gentle ocean breezes in the ever tempting California sun, my trips flashed before my eyes. Looking back, I can remember each experience vividly, as if I was still there. But every time I venture out of the familiar hold of the mountains, during the here and now, my mind is lost, searching for its path back to where it feels at home, back to nature. Try as they might, they can take me out of the mountains, but they can't take the mountains out of me.