Day 5 (for real this time)

Awesome. The word is used so much that on days like today I feel like I can't use it to describe adequately what my encounter with the world was like. We use it to describe a movie we saw and liked, a sweet video we saw on YouTube, or a story we hear a friend tell of one of their out of the ordinary experiences. The word awe means so much more, at least to me, than any of these things. It means you see something, experience something, feel something so much bigger than you, so much deeper than you could ever have expected or imagined and you can't do anything except stop. Your heart pauses, your breathing catches, your eyes widen and your brain simply cannot comprehend what is taking place. That was what today was. I walked out onto a viewing platform overlooking the most spectacular environment I have ever seen. I cannot even come close with words to the awe I felt, I was humbled, and I teared up as I was reminded that this world does not need us. This place is one huge stamp on our forheads that tells us exactly how small we are. The majesty of this place and pure, unadulterated joy I felt at being a part, one tiny inconsequential part, of this beauty cannot be duplicated.

When I say that today was awesome I mean that every hour I was presented with something else that made me just stop. I took around 430 pictures today and none will show anyone what it was like here. None will contain the raw power of the tower falls or the feel of the massive winds which flow through the gigantic canyon. Every turn we took revealed some new aspect of this world I have never seen before and I am only just coming to terms with exactly how much this has effected me.

I sincerely wish that everyone who grows up in this country could come here at some point, ideally when they are old enough to understand what they are seeing; that the hot springs they are watching bubble will look drastically different in a few years, that the canyon they lean over has been forming since a time they cannot even comprehend, and that the skyscrapers and glass and concrete forests of our making can never come close to what nature does and has been doing every day.

Today was awesome, and I wish you all the same sort of day at least once in your life.