To step outside

Have you ever stepped outside for a brief second, say from some party or the office or even walking to your car, and been utterly stopped dead by the sight of a beautiful sunset or the misting fog through a far off mountain range or even the mere patter of rain upon your head? Stopped dead but unable to admit to yourself or others that you wish you were out there on some hill or at the edge of the ocean, viewing the dying sun or simply absorbing the silence of a breathing forest. I wonder why these times hold such a mesmerizing presence upon me. Even before I took up hiking and camping, I remember times when I stepped outdoors at parties only to be struck upon the head by countless stars, almost unwilling to venture indoors again, too overwhelmed with the natural world.

For a period, after work, I would venture to this one hill to catch the last rays of sunset. I did this for close to a month, never missing a day and was utterly entranced by its display. I remember thinking "why can`t this be my entertainment instead of T.V. and movies?" Why does the magnificence of sunset and sunrise hold little to no interest for most of the world? These are the births and deaths of day and link are lives together through them. I have seen a total of three days in my entire life, of both sunrise and sunset, fully enjoyed and those have been the days of my life. Perhaps it depends upon what you consider special and important but I think like great art and music the scenes of the natural world are reserved for the hearts seeking a slice of the sublime and those things of the world that though seperate from humanity, possess the quality of inspiration to our lot.