by Sarah K Grundy

I couldn’t think of a more joyous time in my life and wanted to document it.

When was the last time only the raw sounds of the wild woke you at 5 AM? When was the last time you had no wifi for days, maybe weeks, but were more connected than ever? When was the last time you surfed, or swam in the sea every morning and stared at the stars each night? Where was the last place that fell over you with such peace, it melted you instantly and all you could hear were the sounds of your own heart beating? When was the last time everything felt just as it should?

Fed on neat little morality slogans and education that spends time as if you didn’t have so little, life can become a place where you convince yourself that you’re happy. Day after day, after day, talking yourself into staying with what seems like comfort, or pain that’s become comfortable. Relationships, homes, jobs, food, and friends…

Until one day you get a taste of real joy and suddenly know you’ve been lying to yourself all the while. A fleeting moment, perhaps on a wave you share with a dolphin surfing for the pure fun of it or the thrill of your first big climb and suddenly you know there’s more.

You would think it’d be lonely in the jungles, lost at sea without any real home, with so much silence, but in fact, it’s the noise that rings loudly with a great emptiness. It’s so lonely.

So much noise.

So much stuff.

And yet nothing.

Writing this here and now as a vow to return to that place of pure joy. Not just in fleeting moments only to return to a home that is not a life come Monday morning, but to be free and fleeing once again.