I returned from traveling in Oregon over new year's week, where I was reminded of a decades-ago familiarity—with mud, overgrown ivy, brambles, willows bare and amber along the banks of the river where I used to walk. But what was unfamiliar was how warm it felt, the sun felt so strong by noon that I walked in a t-shirt. As I passed people in puffer jackets, stocking caps, knit gloves, scarves, an annoying, cold-adapted ego thought of everyone as cos-playing cold weather. And I began to think about mountains.
“When I see the mountains now I see the constancy of things eternal in times of acutely finite feelings. It’s a gravity, a beauty, an awe, a feeling of the sacred, a reminder of distance, and the warmth of familiarity at once.” You, in real sense, are a poetess Freya. Thank you for this beautiful gallery of pictures. I would never have known such landscapes existed if it weren’t for you. It brings me so much joy to be able to see it as you see it.
Thankyou for taking the time to give time to the mountains. the rock and the stone. Where I live it is upon basalt, which i have found is a bossy rock with a loud voice. I am grateful to be able to listen as well. there are no tops to climb just a big bass rumble.
I also miss big trees the most living in the north. We drove south to Edmonton (from Yellowknife in Canada) last summer and when people asked what we were going for I said big trees, splash parks, and different restaurants!
I don’t know if it’s because I grew up in a mountain valley, but that is where I feel most at home, and have always missed it painfully when I’ve lived elsewhere. Mountains and running water. They do feel like a hug, that’s beautifully put. Wonderful meditation, thank you.
I would have such a hard time with the medium trees, too. I live for big monsters. So fascinating, the exploration of when mountains started becoming the subject of art and longing! That picture of the Chugach...breathtaking
Wow. Simone Weil and Robert MacFarlane in the same article. Brilliant.
Haven't been to Oregon or Alaska (though I have been to Washington) and both are definitely on my list. And re MacFarlane - the penultimate chapter of Mountains of the Mind, when he recounts the three failed attempts by Mallory on Everest, is one of the best bits of prose I've read in decades.
“When I see the mountains now I see the constancy of things eternal in times of acutely finite feelings. It’s a gravity, a beauty, an awe, a feeling of the sacred, a reminder of distance, and the warmth of familiarity at once.” You, in real sense, are a poetess Freya. Thank you for this beautiful gallery of pictures. I would never have known such landscapes existed if it weren’t for you. It brings me so much joy to be able to see it as you see it.
Thankyou for taking the time to give time to the mountains. the rock and the stone. Where I live it is upon basalt, which i have found is a bossy rock with a loud voice. I am grateful to be able to listen as well. there are no tops to climb just a big bass rumble.
And may you always know your own way home
I also miss big trees the most living in the north. We drove south to Edmonton (from Yellowknife in Canada) last summer and when people asked what we were going for I said big trees, splash parks, and different restaurants!
I don’t know if it’s because I grew up in a mountain valley, but that is where I feel most at home, and have always missed it painfully when I’ve lived elsewhere. Mountains and running water. They do feel like a hug, that’s beautifully put. Wonderful meditation, thank you.
I would have such a hard time with the medium trees, too. I live for big monsters. So fascinating, the exploration of when mountains started becoming the subject of art and longing! That picture of the Chugach...breathtaking
Wow. Simone Weil and Robert MacFarlane in the same article. Brilliant.
Haven't been to Oregon or Alaska (though I have been to Washington) and both are definitely on my list. And re MacFarlane - the penultimate chapter of Mountains of the Mind, when he recounts the three failed attempts by Mallory on Everest, is one of the best bits of prose I've read in decades.
Great post! Thanks!
So glad you have come to enjoy the beauty of Alaska mountains! Welcome home.
Zazen on Ching-t’ing Mountain
BY LI BAI
The birds have vanished down the sky.
Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.
Beautiful piece.