“The Peripatetic Way is medicinal and healing in these harsh mountains in an incorrigible way. It will extirpate your fears, insecurities and hang ups. Swiftly. Like a Cretan dagger to the lung.
Taking a moment to feel my jelly like legs, or catch my breath when rucking up a steep slope, I gaze around at the sinuous, winding sheep paths spread out around us like calculated spider webs, and I see those two white specks, those incredible athletes pouring their hearts and souls into what they are doing, being fully present, full of gusto, with a voraciousness to truly do what they love. And I am overcome with adulation, with emotion and with a sense of humbleness I can’t quite describe. Being humble is so very important out here in this place, with these sentient animals, mans ego is a heavy burden for a dog to carry. And no dog needs that. They are alchemic in their ways. Through their physically defying feats. They transform pain, confusion, anger, and insecurities into love. When their eyes meet mine at a moment of brief respite, I am overcome with a dazzling appreciation of love and adulation that almost always leaves me bewildered.
As a result, even in my worst days, my worst internal wars, they leave me otherwise sanguine in that state. Their passion and ways invade my every sense. My every fibre. And thus they heal me in conjunction with these harsh yet beautiful mountains.
And so I adorn myself with my bandolier each and every morning, and trudge out, once more into the fray. Adorned for war. For the only war we know.”
Always chasing the horizon,
Chris.
Pictured: Baggio, Bianca and Alba of Ourano.