Adventure Time

“For a few moments we discover that nothing can be taken for granted…and our journey here on earth, able to see and touch and hear in the midst of tangible and mysterious things-in-themselves, is the most strange and daring of all adventures.”
-Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire 

The constant feeling of discovery in each present moment infuse each day with a acute sense of life.  The colors are more vibrant, the smells are sharper, the light is brighter, small moments hold more meaning, vast landscapes are more overwhelming, people‘s lives are more worthwhile, old people are more beautiful.  Every aspect of living is oversaturated with life.  Fall’s yellow leaves drip with color, as if each tree was dunked in paint and is still drying against the vibrant blue of the sky or heavy gray of the clouds.  People’s faces wear the sky and the earth in dignified wrinkles, and their eyes reflect years under the sun in understated sparkles.  Traditional Mongolian music celebrates nomadic spirit as the horse hair violin, the morin khuur, channels the spirit of the horse itself, and Mongolian throat singers capture man’s place in the vastness of nature.
I excuse inconveniences that I would never accept in the States as simply another aspect of experience and adventure.  The bus is late, but the bus is late in Mongolia.  The roads are terrible, but the roads are terrible in Mongolia.  The food is bland, but the food is bland in Mongolia.  The weather is extreme, but the weather is extreme in Mongolia.  This acceptance of the present moment as just part of the adventure endows each experience with its vibrancy.  I have little thought of the future; it is a hazy tomorrow that only deserves are hazy acknowledgement because right now, I am in Mongolia.
In Mongolia, the sense of each small moment is so overwhelming that concentrating on the big picture that incorporates the past, present, and future is impossible for me right now.  Each present moment is enough for me.  In the United States, the feeling of manageable, even boring, everyday routine necessitates a more acute awareness of the future in order stimulate a sense of wonder and possibility.  My expectations and concerns for the future are a product of a lack of awareness of the present.  I’m sure that as I become more comfortable to everyday Mongolian living, filled with all of its inconveniences, my awareness of the present will become more dull and my sense of the future will grow sharper.  My challenge will be to continue to live with acute awareness of the present with the same sense of discovery that has made each moment up to this so alive.