Finding Direction

Wisuv Káruv, or Sleeping Ute Mountain, has become a familiar landmark that lets me know I’m almost home.

One of the first things I noticed about Coloradans is that they all know exactly where everything is. And by “everything” I mean natural landmarks. To me, mountains just look like mountains, especially when they’re far away. But people here explore every inch of every peak and valley, and they can recognize them from any angle at any distance.

That’s probably an exaggeration, but that’s what it feels like to me.

And it’s what a lot of life feels like.

I’ve tried to surround myself with knowledgeable people, and dive head first into unknown territory in order to gain as much clarity, understanding, and wisdom as I can. I want to strike out through life with a good sense of direction and a well stocked arsenal of survival skills.

And yet, no matter how far I go and how much I do, I still find myself at square one with no idea which way is North and a backpack full of tools that are useful in every other situation but this particular one.

But maybe that’s because I keep changing my environment. Maybe if I had just committed to a thing twenty years ago, I’d be an unfailing master by now instead of a wayward traveler with a pocket full of rocks and random information that, while interesting, isn’t very useful right here right now.

But you’re here reading this, so maybe it will do some good after all. Maybe some of use are just directionally challenged, and instead of finding our way we just need to find good people to help guide the way.