We've been flying into space for a long time now, but we've forgotten about our inner universe. That's why we need to stop and not let these crazy times hound us. If you don't stop, nothing beautiful can ever catch up with you.
I go to the Jizera Mountains on my own or with my dog. On a glorious autumn day, there's no keeping the dog at home. The air is clean, the sun is still warm and off he runs. Leaves rustle under his paws and his doggy soul rejoices. I sniff the air just like he does when he catches the scent of a hare, and with half-closed eyes I take in the smell of freshly felled trees by the path. I love the mornings most, when mist wraps the mountains and, thanks to yesterday's rain, the mosses compete to see whose green is richer. Wilting thistles shed their white down, which dances in the air for a while longer.
I also hear that diesel will get expensive, a crisis is coming, there are sales on here and there. It comes at us from every side, but I don't want to be part of it. So I look for my own place where none of that matters. And I've found it. It's in the mountains. In the forests. Among the granite boulders and little towers that I don't want to conquer or defeat. I want to become one with them, to understand them and, through each ascent, to get to know a piece of climbing history and the times when each route was first climbed.
Above all, I enjoy the solitude here when my soul needs patching up. I enjoy the forest paths, the hilltops of every shape imaginable and the smell of dry grass and leaves. When I need to, I find my refuge here, even if only in my thoughts.
Every day the internet also spews out loads of information and news about who climbed what and where. The hardest trad route in the world, a ten-year-old sends an 8B boulder, a new XIII on sandstone. On the one hand it's a strong motivation, but on the other you're so overloaded that you just want to sit down in the leaves among the rocks with your friends and chat – so that ordinary thoughts and ordinary words of friendship fly through the universe, too.
The best human moments tend to be small, but they stay tucked away in your soul for a lifetime. Each of us sees the point of our existence in something different. Talk to the trees about love and they'll grow up to the sky. Talk to them about hate and they'll plug their ears with resin. How lovely it is to lie down in the grass, just lie there and gaze at the clouds or into the treetops. Your soul is on holiday and your body gets peace and rest.
In the forest you make new acquaintances. The forest calms you, cheers you, lifts your spirits. Walk through the forest with humility, because neither tree, nor grass, nor moss is any less than you. The only crown that deserves respect is the crown of a tree.
I wish you all a lovely autumn. Enjoy life your own way and just be good to each other.
