You’re in the backseat of a car looking through the window. You admire the trees and farms that pass by; in the distance there is a mountain that serves as a guardian of the area. It towers over the land and stretches far and wide.
You feel small.
Your drive brings you closer to this beautiful giant. You look back at ground level when you approach the village and people. Shops pass by with an aroma of smoked cheese, and every so often you see the giant peek through the gaps in the trees and buildings. You get out of the car to travel up by horse and carriage. The guardian hugs you on both sides, embracing you tighter as you approach.
You feel small.
Traveling up, you take in the sights of the trees thickening, and the smoke rising from the cabin with cows grazing nearby. The trees open up, the horse stops and you get out, but there is one more step to meeting this guardian face to face.
The trees shrink so small like pores on your skin. Finally, you step foot on its chest and you swear you feel its heart beat ever so slightly beneath you, slow but strong, feeding the life around it. You’ve once heard the saying:
“the guardians greet their guests with silence”.
You take in the silence but it’s not empty or lonely, it’s a silence filled with wisdom and respect. You feel its cool breath on your face as you look around. The valleys and peaks look like frozen waves during a storm. What looked like a colorful river in the distance, turned into a sea of buildings flowing through the village.
As the meeting draws to an end, you brush your hand on the blanket of snow to say ‘goodbye’ and ‘thank you’. On the trip home, you peer through the back window wondering if you made as much of an impact on it as it had on you. After all, you are very small.
#travel #mountain #personalproject #narrative #beautifulgiant #greetingofsilence