love of heights

Looking down upon vibrant green pine tree tops, thousands of them covering the mountains below. The rushing brown river looking as if it is just a tiny stream winding through the trees. Leaning farther out to see a huge space of tan and gray rocky cliff side before the trees reach to meet it. Fog rises up out of the shadowed lines where slope connects to slope creating ghostly white clouds that seem to hug whatever may be below them. Looking left an enormous black vulture flies from her nest in a crooked scraggly tree growing on the side of the bluff. Experiencing a tad of vertigo as my feet dangle over the rocky ledge where I sit. Knowing that hundreds of feet separate myself from the valley floor. This is the beauty of heights. This is why I climb high to the place where I am even with an eagle riding the wind. To sit in the midst of this grand creation called earth and to truly recognize how small I am in this massive, incredible world.

{I started college August 23rd and I am enjoying the English 101 class so incredibly much. It is definitely my favorite so far. I am required to write 3 journal entries and 1 quote to bring in each week for my instructor to read. This has been very good for me and is making me be creative with my writing as there are certain words I cannot use. So I am forced to truly use my imagination and I will be sharing some of my writings with you, if you don't mind! Also these photos are from the Hemmed In Falls and the Big Bluff in Arkansas. Go to the previous post to see more pictures from us hiking those places. I feel a little silly after writing this as I consider the difference between Arkansas "mountains" and true mountains in Colorado and the like...one day I would like to climb Mount Kilimanjaro! But it is high for these parts and it was pretty amazing anyway.}