Telluride Vista

You are not IN the mountains, the mountains are in YOU.

John Muir (via getlostinthemountains)

Manfredi Beninati (Italian, b. 1970), Untitled, 2006. Oil on canvas, 200.6 x 160 cm

Canyonlands National Park in Utah is a showcase of geology. In each of the park’s districts, visitors can see the remarkable effects of time and erosion on a landscape of sedimentary rock. For millions of years, rock was broken down and carried here by wind and water, creating deposits that eventually became distinct rock layers. Many of the rock’s layers were deposited near sea level, but after a long period of uplift, the average elevation is now over 5,000 feet above sea level. As this area gradually rose, rivers that once deposited sediment on the lowlands began to remove it from the emerging plateau. The Green and Colorado rivers carved into the geologic layer cake, exposing buried sediments and creating the canyons and rock spires of Canyonlands that amaze us now. Photo by Randy Smythe (www.sharetheexperience.org). #ICYMI We’re looking back on your favorite posts of 2020. This display of incredible geologic formations really rocked our feeds this year.  #Top10of2020

Bridal Veil Falls (Telluride) Colorado - Michael Hsu

Where the forest follows the shoreline. #FilsonLife

hiking in colorado - august 2017

Welcome to Ophir. Population 163. Elevation 9600. 55 Kids. 30+ Dogs. 15+ Cats. Countless Avalanches. 

I don’t think self-neutrality should always be treated as a stepping stone on the way to a commodified form of self-love. Sometimes, perhaps, self-neutrality is enough on its own, and might even be more helpful.

Example:

“I feel worthless” doesn’t need to become “I have value.” Instead, it would honestly be healthier to realize that “value” is a vague concept with little to no bearing on your right to exist.

“I’m useless,” doesn’t need to become “I have potential.” Who honestly gives a fuck if you have potential, except for people who want to use that potential for their own gain? We don’t exist to be a vessel for potential. We exist merely because we were born to exist.

“My life has no purpose,” doesn’t mean you need to find an all-consuming passion to give your life meaning. Life doesn’t really need to have a grand meaning, that’s just something human beings decided. You can still live a fulfilling life just by focusing on what you like now.

“I’m nobody.” Why do you need to “be someone” in the first place?? Everyone is always trying to be somebody, what’s so bad with just enjoying yourself and your friends and good food and laughs, without any expectation of being a person that others can identify and judge?

Conclusion: Self-love can have many benefits, but sometimes it has foundations in toxic productivity culture, capitalistic ideals, and an unhealthy pressure for us to be socially and financially valuable. In those situations, it’s best to just throw away the whole suitcase and realize that you don’t need to be judging your existence based on made-up ideals.