The desert.

Everywhere we go in life, there are creative lessons to be gleaned from anything and everything around us. I draw much inspiration from the aesthetic of an environment and the ways in which life chooses to flourish. Of all the places I have been, it is among the mountains and the deserts that I tend to learn the most. Not enough of us hike the wilderness that often surrounds us, and even fewer so dig into the reasons why any of us are drawn to do so. Today, we frame the explanations of our human preferences and desires through the lens of evolutionary biology, which sheds light on many of the causes and effects of our human nature. (This lens has also spurred the creation of many odd theories that are questionable...)

But ultimately, I think we are fundamentally removed from ever knowing anything so surely about our nature. And while scientists continue to shine light upon our still dim understanding of human consciousness, I think I'll settle to tell a story in the dark.

What exactly makes us human? Sure, some percent of this and some percent of that, but what about those moments that make us feel human? Sure, the brain is firing off neurons spurred by stimuli produced from the infinitely long series of chain reactions of the physical reality outside ourselves, but why does any of that lead to a feeling of humanness? That simultaneous feeling of interconnectedness and individuation accompanied by an underlying understanding of their fundamental opposition to one another, topped with the acceptance of that absurdity? There are many different ways this kind of feeling is elicited: through love, awe, artful expression, community celebration, and much more. My point is that this feeling, as we dig deeper into what it is, becomes so abstract that we cannot restrict it to a certain set of words like we can other scientifically studied parts of reality. And yet, we all seem to have moments in our lives that lead to a nearly universal understanding of what the feeling is. It is found both within the little joys of living and the grand gestures of one human unto another. Within the minuteness of our existence and its inexplicable complexity.

It is a feeling with many ingredients.

I believe when we go out into nature, that calling we have is a yearning for the discovery of these ingredients. The sprinkles of awe and savory appreciations. When we feel a desire to explore nature or to take whatever journey that calls to us, there might just be an innate yearning for that which we somehow know we're missing, though we couldn't name it. All you can promise yourself is the journey. What wisdom you find out there isn't quite up to you. When I go out into the desert, I discover that what is out there, what lives out there, is that which thrives in scarcity. And I realize that this is true for myself as well. I thrive in scarcity and wilt in abundance. When I have everything I want within arms reach, I never travel any further than that. But when I give myself a reason to venture out, I do, and I'm always wiser for it. When I am in the mountains, I see time unfolded, laid bare to one's eyes so clearly that I cannot help but see how far it has all come just to become me. I am its progeny, and it is my predecessor. From the dirt we have come, but just as the mountains, I too will become much more than the soil I stand upon.

It is all going somewhere, and I am lucky enough to be a part of its journey.

These ideas I hold are something that called me to seek them. They started as a calling that led me into the mountains and the desert to find them. And you, too, have an idea calling you out there somewhere. It may not be a place, though. It might be a call to someone estranged. It could be a to witness some celestial event. To dive into the ocean or to embark upon a new project. To create art or write poems. It is all to dare to do something different and do it your way. We cannot pick the things or the people which we love. We may only choose where we spend our time, and there is no better way to determine where you ought to be than heeding the call.

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