The Edge of Everything.

“When the mountains call, I must go.”

This phrase above I hear often, so often in fact it has indeed become a cliche, though I’m sure it still means a lot to many adventurous folk. It instills hope and excitement. There’s this idea and truth around many wildernesses that we can set off and become lost. Up, up we go and then there at your feet are paths that lead far and wide. Here and there, we can walk in circles through forests, over rivers and up to the highest summits where we look out over everything.

Here at the oceans edge I feel as though I am at the edge of everything. There’s no more steps to take nor paths to follow. You can only skirt the edges of a beast that cannot be tamed. It humbles me and often I find myself more at peace down by the beach. Though I am happier in the woods and hills I find that this invisible barrier that stops me from walking and well stops me from going anywhere. I am forced to take it slow, listen and observe.

The waves rise and fall.

The sand sweeps and sways away in every direction, back towards the mountains that call out from the distance.

Birds call out, diving beneath the surface and circling the sky.

Dogs run and play just the same as the kids, bare foot in the sand.

The wind runs out into the open ocean to where I can’t follow.

Here at the edge of everything I am humbled more than I am at the base of any mountain fore out there I cannot stand nor finding my bearings. Out there I will fall slowly into an abyss from where I cannot ascend. There is no summit, no start nor end from where I can climb my way too. No forest to run and find shelter beneath. Out there past the edge of everything I am exposed and vulnerable.