I visited Colorado and this is what happened. The lake and its vast silence must be humming with life under the surface. The mountains in the distance look at me as if they’re asking, “Why did it take you this long to find us?” Two dried up tree limbs spring out of the earth on either side of my full view as if its arms are welcoming me. How else can mother earth beckon its children?

I feel my face with my palms and look down at my feet to check if I’m still myself – one whole of a human being. I’m using my senses to soak in the view, but somehow my inner wisdom has awakened to experience this strange stillness. I can’t even sit still with my eyes closed to get this close to my core.

Amidst this natural setting, I feel like I can’t be anything unnatural or unpleasant. I will have to ask every thought of mine to vacate its mind’s house. If I can’t clear out my thoughts, I can never be alone, the giant trees seem to teach me.

The fact that they were here well before I arrived and they will still be standing long after I leave the earth’s lap, hits me hard. My petty thoughts of unfolded laundry, lunch box ideas and presentations that are due humiliate me.

Like Mother nature, I want to be a stoic. I will only bear witness to love, greed, hate and excesses but not be stifled by emotions created and only known to our human kind.