Up above the world so high

The hills seem to be alive...there is a unique kind of energy that pulsates through the winding turns and the endless depths that form the hills and the valleys. Atop the various "points", as you gaze at the vast expanse of mountain ranges in front of your eyes, you realize what you are in the middle of. God has been kind to enable you to share the same world as is inhabited by these marvels of His creation...He has given you an existence, which though incomparably small in front of what you see, still lets you appreciate the beauty of it all.

As you make your way through the small villages in the midst of this natural wonder, you can't help smiling at your own stupidity in thinking of them as sleepy and dull...far from it. The passion with which they carry on with their daily routine would put any fast-life urban-dweller to shame. Panting and huffing and puffing through the ascents, as you look at villagers making low weather of it, you berate yourself for the many gym sessions you have missed recently and get reminded of all those stamina enhancing suggestions your friend was making just the other week.

All of them would not have helped, you realize a little later as the most beautiful of sunsets seems so far away behind that trek to the top of the mountain. It offers the best view of the sunset that could have been but it is so far away, so high up with such a steep trail separating it from you. As you try to make up your mind as to whether you have the strength and the courage to make it thus far, you look at kids shepherding their flock nonchalantly towards the seemingly unassailable peak. Awe, surprise, irritation, shame, helplessness...giving up and resigning to the facts of life...

Could the speck of white you are looking at have been snow, the remnants of the special way with which even the Rain Gods seem to treat the hills? Will it snow anytime soon and will you get the chance to experience the flakes from heaven that make their way straight to the hearts of the mere mortals that we are? The strange sense of expectation fills your heart as you await the sheets of white to engulf each and every thing around you.

Till the time that happens however, you have got the greens for company. Tall pine trees mixed with the rare eucalyptus dot the open spaces in the valley. The hills, seen from a distance, seem to be protected from the forces of nature with the cover of green that they so proudly present to the onlooker. They stand tall, the mountains, literally as well as figuratively...both serene and disturbing at the same time.

As you get your fill and your heart starts getting covered with the sights around you, you simply take a step back and wonder about the ingenuity of His creation, the sheer brilliance of design with which nature presents itself, and the magnitude, the grandeur of the mountains that make you feel so small and yet so much a part of itself.