Just Stop

The beauty in Ecuador is simply amazing. That is the best way to put it. People talk about scenes that take their breath away, but I have never really experienced so many of those breath-taking moments as I have during my study abroad in Ecuador. There was an evening in the Galapagos on the island Isabela, two other students  and I watched the most serene sunset I may ever experience. We were sitting on a soft, cream colored, sandy beach after playing in the waves all afternoon. We found a spot where the sun would sink down behind the distant volcano and the adjacent watery horizon. It was a mild temperature with a slight breeze. We sat in silence for over an hour, breathing deeply and watching the pastel colors ebb into an eye piercing yellow white reflection on the water. I don't think pictures will ever quite be able to put the feeling you get watching something so intense and peaceful at the same time. It's that feeling where your breath catches in your throat for a minute, and you just stop whatever you are doing. Then you take a few deep breaths in and out in rhythm and feel, well frankly, alive.

Too many people today are busy all the time. Even I'm busy all the time- work, school, family, friends, technology. All of these things occupy our time. The key word I think is occupy. When you are occupying space, you aren't quite experiencing what it is to be alive-- here and now. I don't think it takes an adrenaline rush or something extreme to truly appreciate life. I think all it takes is for you to stop. I remember one of the few other times I felt this way back at home. When I was in middle school, my parents moved from a developed suburban area, to what I felt at the time was the middle of nowhere. (Believe me it is not the middle of nowhere, as I just recently learned after a good ten hour travel time to the definite middle of no man's land in the Amazon basin somewhere on the Tiputini River to a scientific research station.) The area my parents moved to was definitely rural but within an hour drive to "civilization". It was a clear night the last time I actually stopped; there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I had just pulled in the gravel driveway next to the corn field, yes, a corn field, and got out of the car to go into the house. I remember looking up and just stopping, the breath catching in my throat. I never knew just how many stars there were until that moment. I just stared. There were millions and millions of stars far from the city lights on a cloudless night. I couldn't believe I never knew that there were that many stars. It was absolutely beautiful. I guess the old saying is true; everyone should stop and smell the roses from time to time. I think I finally learned the truth underlying that statement.

“There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.”

– Charles Dudley Warner