Ripples extend from a dog exploring the clear lake. The sun glints off the blue-green surface, and your feet dig into the sand as you watch from shore. Across the lake, the trees are bare, but soon there will be leaves and spring flowers.

Water roars down the thin layers of shale, its cool breeze making the purple phacelia dance on the hillside. You listen to the white noise, feeling the dappled sun fumble with the waterfall mist.

You follow the sound of trickling water until the forest opens before you. Time slows. You sit and listen to the water whispering over the stone shelf. You're privy to the forest's secrets.

Perched high on a cliff above the gorge, the river is too far to hear. Far below you, a bend in the river reminds you that progress isn't always straight. Sometimes your path will bend and wander through beautiful country.

You climb higher and higher until the trees finally fall away, revealing layer after layer of blue mountains stretching toward the horizon. Clouds drift overhead, their shadows moving slowly across the ridges below. Up here, the world feels enormous. Every cloud tells a dozen different stories, and as you watch them drift past, you feel like you've lived a dozen lifetimes in these moments.