Q: How many times do we have to do something before it becomes a tradition?
I always jump at the chance to walk up Mount Arthur (the tallest peak in Kahurangi National Park). It’s a treat to be able to climb something I spend most days looking at, and enjoy the view in reverse.
At the first hut there is a curious engraving on one of the seats (weirdly cut off by one of the posts from the hut):
I expect to pass through this world but once.
Any good, therefore, that I can do
or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature,
let me do it now.
Let me not defer or neglect it
for I shall not pass this way again.
(Apparently this is an old Quaker saying, possibly originally by Etienne de Grellet du Mabillier, but this is disputed)
During the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 I caught myself mourning the loss of international travel. I wasn’t angry that I couldn’t travel - there was literally no where I wanted to go in that moment. I was just sad that something I used to enjoy a lot was no longer an option. I realised the list of places I may never visit again, or even for the first time, only ever gets longer.
But, being out in a massive National Park is a good reminder that travel is like counting to infinity. There are more interesting places to go within easy driving distance of where I live than I could reasonably visit in my lifetime. And orders of magnitude more than that if I include the places I can fly to, including some inexcusable omissions from my “places I’ve been in NZ” list.
Gotta stop feeling sorry for the things I don’t have and start making more of what I’ve got.
Related Idea:
When travelling to a new place always leave one thing undone, so then you always have an excuse to return.
