Slip and Fall

Recently I discovered that I had not experienced my usual respiratory allergy in the morning. Thanks to staying active from my hikes. This allergy somehow came back (it may just be a seasonal thing), maybe this made me persist and went on a hike in weather I swear I’d not dare trying. It was the relatively high temperature, the scattered shower, high humidity, the bugs (little spiders and their webs)…

The terrain of this trail was already a bit of a challenge for hikers like me, which’s not so seasoned and not so newish. With rain and humidity, it can turn everything upside down, literally. Sand can turn into mud and mud is just as slippery as the icy snow. I took this adventure and learned my lesson on my early third or forth hike last year, except this time after months later, it’s worse.

After reaching these 600m peaks, there was a narrow, steep downhill muddy path. I had to pull on the tall grass and bushes every so often just to get my balance. I got through a few steep ones. Toward the end of this path, I finally slipped and fell. I laughed at myself while on the ground with mud on my hands shortly after I fell. I said to myself ‘I finally fell.’ I wasn’t hurt, not even a scratch.

Am I a mad man? The entire hike journey I’ve only met 1 person on the way. And he does not even live in the city.

No, it was never as dramatic as ‘Man vs. Wild’. It’s only that I grew up in the city and never received any scout training. That’s why hiking off-road with the these conditions mentioned has always been a test to my survival mindset. I treat it as a problem solving game. I did tackle all these environmental obstacles one by one, very much continuously on every step i take.

And to be fair, the easy trails can just be a brainless hangout with your friends.

I’ve Missed

The heat is catching up as we gradually move into the summery season. I kept telling myself that there’s not that many hikes I could do until the end of the year. I’m intentionally avoiding steep hikes unless I feel like I needed a bit of stress relief. Until the last rainy week that had practically ruined my weekends, I realize how much i’ve missed being in the outdoor, how much I’ve missed discovering the uncharted territories, how much I’ve missed just being stupid.

I like the idea of just being stupid, do some of the things that not everyone would normally do in routine; but then when I tell someone what I’d done, It’s turns into your own identifier – a topic starter.

Being curiously stupid unleashes possibilities. I appreciate these people who inherit this mentality. They’re willing to accept things we normally don’t. They’re committed in an ideology. Whether it’s a personal pursuit of work travel without calculating the successive rate, or take on a labor intensive job with rewarding salary, . They know what they’re after. It’s a world they see differently.

I was never a risk taker in any way. I am too stupid to be stupid enough.

Gravitational Dream

All the people in life tells you to dream. When you’re young, they tell you to dream big and follow your path. When you become an adult, dream does not necessarily come to you and you start to take up responsibility. Maybe your dream is too big, or maybe it’s such a little dream that’s to build a family and own your own property. Some people succeed in their ‘goal’. Whatever the case might be, never stop dreaming until your last breath. Dream is vague, dream is beautiful, dream is really a force, a gravity that keeps you moving forward. It’s always there but you don’t ever need to think about it. It does not matter if your dream would ever come true. The truth is, it’s only a destination, you may end up to another which you’d be happy and satisfied about.

The media in Hong Kong loves asking if you’re living happily and come up with an index that displays how likely you’re with the norm. It’s so unfortunate that everything these days have to tie to money and political motives. I think the next biggest ‘unrealistic‘ question to all of us is: Can we live happily with what you already have? One may suggest no one ever earns enough in this globalized, consumeristic society. There’s always the need to catch up the deficit when someone is ahead of you in life. The fact is there’s always someone ahead of you. I often get called the laid back type of person. It’s not that I do not care or lazy, I may just have my attention somewhere else. The more you appreciate your existence and learn to satisfy what you have, the more you could take away that unwanted competitive mindset. That is, when it’s unwanted.

I’m who I’m, a type of personality grew up in a common environment where many have encountered. The differences are our family background, buddies, education, teachers, mentors, media, life experiences from childhood to early adulthood that make up what we are. Can we all somewhat live equally happy?