After climbing 3000ft through forest and valley, the Alps open out into their full splendour.
In front, the vast rampart of the Austrian Tyrol reaches towards the azure sky.
I am drawn here by the irresistible call of the wild, to this place that feels like home.
Not a bricks and mortar edifice of civilization, rather a deeper and more primal home.
Here the inner and outer expressions of wildness can meet fully.
My heartbeat becomes that of the wolf, lynx and eagle. I move like trees to the touch of wind and like them I can root myself here.
Not long ago all of us lived, completely unmediated from nature. We slept on this ground, found, food, shelter and even our gods here.
It is to these high places that we can return and lay down our tired 21st century bones for a while.
We are, after all is said and done, creatures of the wild.
Photo courtesy of the author.
For many years, we used to rent a cabin in the local mountains on most three day weekends. The cabin nestled in the woods, overlooked a small lake and renewed our sense of peace, tranquility and oneness with all creation. The portion of our drive that began the assent up the mountain and into the forest provided many changes of vegetation and landscape. At the point where the shrubs faded into forests, the sense that we were almost to the cabin seeped into us and the turmoils of city life began oozing away. Over twenty years ago, we decided that… Read more »