It can be so easy to feel alone.
When you're stuck in the grind, working day after day, and following the same routine, it's easy to feel like it's you versus the world. Even if you would term yourself to be "happy", the grind and the routines can make you feel stuck. You lose sight of yourself. Your boredom intensifies. Your happiness dwindles. It's easy to feel like you're the only one who thinks and the only one who cares.
Honestly, this is how I've felt for the last few months. Not necessarily lost, or unhappy, just alone.
Last week, myself and ten others pulled up to Desert View in the Grand Canyon after five days of backpacking. Five of them had never seen the big ditch before, so they paired up with each other, covered their eyes, and walked blindly to the edge. I led the way, unpaired, and emotions started to flood my thoughts. I was back, less than a year later, to my center of the universe.
Once at the viewpoint, I positioned everyone on the railing, and told them to open their eyes. I'll never forget those five faces. They were in shock, stunned, mesmerized by the canyon. Just like I always am. I told them that it never gets old.
We walked down below the viewpoint a little ways to the edge of a cliff, which we probably shouldn't have done, but none of us were mentally capable of handling the National Park crowds after being in the Utah backcountry for several days. Time slowed down, the sun drifted below the rim while we all watched and shivered in the coming cold.
I set up my tripod and photographed the light on the canyon walls as the colors shifted from gold to pink. But once the pink began to fade and the blue hour began to rise, I just watched. I hadn't been that happy in a long time.
That was the real me. Standing there on the edge of the grandest place on Earth, camera in hand, surrounded by those who also think, and who also care. We were all so present in that moment, there were no distractions and no extraneous thoughts. The light, the canyon, the wind, the silence. That's all that really mattered.
So whenever you start to feel alone, find those who love to truly live, drive away to somewhere grand, and watch what the world really has to offer.