Trifter

No matter how many times one may see them, they always take your breath away. There is always a great stillness, a great silence about them, a silence that devours the wind, the people, the cars, the rivers. It is the silence that makes you realize just how old they are, just how many years and how many lives these towering sentinels have seen.  They shatter your perceptions of the world, make you realize just how small and insignificant you really are, and how meaningless human toils and troubles are. They have been here for millions of years; they have seen ice ages, they have seen evolution. No matter who you may be, when you come into the presence of such giants, you stop and stare.

I speak of the mountains, most specifically those of Yosemite, for that place of history and wonder and grandeur is my querencia. My family has made it a yearly practice to stay in Yosemite, sometimes twice in on year, and because of this, it has become my sanctuary. I have so many incredible and so many warm memories of that place that  I can simply close my eyes and remember when I’m having a bad day. I hate school, I hate suburbia, and I’m not a great fan of cities (save for San Fran); but in this place of ageless splendor, none of the trifles of everyday human life matter. The towering walls of granite and fir pine meadows do not care that you got a ‘D’ on a math test. The trickling creeks and roaring waterfalls don’t judge your, but allow you to enter into this place where the very air seems to vibrate with age and wisdom. Here you can escape the dismal world of business and retail, for money has no meaning in a place such as this. Here one can leave behind the world of prejudices, indifference and intolerance and enter a small sanctuary where humans, no matter how powerful or how rich, are still small and insignificant. The towering peaks offer a valley of breathtaking scale and splendor, a valley of rolling meadows and thick forests, a valley that man cannot touch, no matter how many years he went to college, or how many buildings he owns.

Yosemite, since the first time I ever set foot in it, has always been a place where I’ve felt different. It’s the place where I am most inspired, most in tune with my thoughts, most at ease with my life and myself. I never grow tired of the ice-capped peaks or the meadows of dew-tipped grass blazing in the morning sunlight.

If you have never been to this incredible National Park, you should consider making a trip. It is a sanctuary away from the rumblings and horrors of the city, of society, of life. Lying nestled in the Sierra Mountain Range in California, Yosemite is a place that no human can touch. It’s almost as if there’s some sort of force-field surrounding it; when you enter into the valley amidst towering peaks and breathtaking waterfalls, you feel different. You know you are somewhere special, somewhere almost magical, a place that can’t be domesticated nor controlled.