Get it together!

Maybe it’s okay to muddle along….

People tell you not to look back but part of moving through life is stopping, taking a look over your shoulder and seeing where you’ve come from, what you’ve been through and how far you’ve come. I think it just gives a little perspective on where you are now.

People will tell you to look forward. Looking forward is great but looking too far forward (like more than a month) scares the hell out of me. I have no idea what I’ll be doing, where I will be or if anything will pan out remotely like I hoped it would. If I were to look forward all the time, I’d stop living for now and be too scared to do anything. 

People say you should be careful and sensible; settle down and get a ‘proper job’. But where’s the fun in that?

You know what? I actually think it’s okay to muddle through. I think it’s okay to not know what’s coming next. In fact, I think that’s part of the fun; part of the reason I love these trips is the struggle to get there. It’s the struggle to find some place to stay, figuring out how to get there without arriving broke and still make the most of where I am. 

Maybe we don’t have to have it all together? Maybe, just maybe it’s NOT terrible to muddle through for a little while. So long as your motives are good and your principles are sound why not take some time to explore and get lost in the land. Could it be that it’s actually okay to go hard, work hard and see where we get to, no final destination in mind? 

I think this quote sums up what I am trying to say here far more eloquently than I ever could:

“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am — a reluctant enthusiast… a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotised by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.” – Unknown

Photo by Mauritz Crous. You can check out more of his epic photos from our trip here: Mauritz Crous Instagram