The Weight of the Path

I spent this morning trying to organize my bookshelf, pulling out old journals that I haven’t touched in years. It is funny how we think we need to carry everything with us—every memory, every heavy thought, every version of who we used to be. I found a note from a trip I took when I was twenty, back when I thought that reaching the summit was the only reason to climb. I remember how exhausted I was, how much I wanted to turn back because my bag felt like it was filled with stones. But looking back, I realize the weight wasn’t in the bag at all. It was in the pressure to arrive, to prove something to the air and the mountains. Now, I wonder if the point of the journey isn’t to reach the top at all, but to see how much of ourselves we can leave behind on the way up. What do you leave behind when the path gets steep?

Dipanjan Mitra has captured this exact feeling of endurance in his beautiful image titled The Trail to Heaven. It reminds me that sometimes the most important steps are the ones we take when we are smallest against the world. Does this view make you feel like moving forward or standing still?