I have been travelling of late and taking big hikes everyday wherever I have been. As I have marveled at the natural wonders around me – whether Bear Creek Trail in Telluride, Colorado, or the South Rim of the Grand Canyon or Thousand Pockets and Buck Skin Gulch in Utah, I have thought about the journey vs. the destination.
I think some of us are inclined to take hikes with the intent of completing them, with the notion that the destination is the main goal. That intent doesn’t have to negate the desire to absorb the hike’s beauties along the way, but it may mean that there is less desire in taking adequate time along the way to observe the details and take in the surprises.
Caring more about the journey itself demands more time and more attention to the present. I tend to be a journeyer, trying to take in as much as possible along the way so that when I do reach the destination, I have a cargo of pleasures brimming in my mind and heart.
