Outdoorism

It’s easy to visit the outdoors, see all the grand sights that await you there, and not realize that the places we visit are changing. Mountains especially seem stoic, immovable, and almost changeless. We take our pictures and make our memories in an instant, and take home an impression of a place during only that instant. I love going outdoors this time of year, to mountains and deserts especially, because the wildflowers growing there are so effective at shattering this illusion. They express their impermanence in their fragility, throwing all their energy into a paper-thin bloom that couldn’t possibly survive a cold night. Try to count the different kinds, and there always seems to be another variety not yet seen. Pass a dull shrub in the morning, and on the return trip in the afternoon it has exploded with blossoms, while its neighbors have closed up. All of this activity happens on a time scale we can witness, which makes it a sort of language the outdoors can use to speak to us. I believe the flowers express in their diverse dance the stories of other changes happening in the places we visit that are less perceptible to us. Changes that take place over days, weeks, years, and millenia are all underway during our visit, and all reflect the patterns shown to us by the flowers in some way. There’s always something new to learn from them, so I’m always inspired to get outdoors this time of year to see the wildflowers, and listen to them as well!