Transition

A worthy farewell to winter and welcome to spring. Although I'm not much of a winter type, spring being my season, with all its charms, it's a good feeling to catch winter once again, as well as to experience what it's like to watch the show of the four seasons in one day, where main actors are natural forces and myself.

Despite the rough weather in the morning, when I’d have rather hide under the blanket, we went hiking. The first pleasant surprise in the spring rain was the flock of storks that landed in the field to rest, probably they had just arrived home. Here I immediately restrained my complaining, because those poor creatures were soaked to their skin, with their wings down, but I think they were happy by returning home.

The winding road leading halfway up the mountain showed picturesque, embracing freshness, tall pines sharing road with guarding dignity. The same uplifting feeling fills me every time I'm in a pine forest.

We were able to enjoy the experience of skating in the mud with the car on the forest road to the starting point of the walking tour, getting a sufficient dose of adrenaline for the theoretically 7-8 hour tour that awaited us. By getting out of the car connection between nature and me has been already set, the trees, the paths, the raindrops glistening on the trees all seemed eagerly waiting for telling their winter stories, life awakening green sea floating from the melting snow.

I'm not a big hiker, but determined enough. We went as a group. Group hiking in our region is not a possibility, but necessity, given the increased number of bears. However, apart from the fact that we move as one, a tour is always about ourselves, learning about our limitations, determination, and self-encouragement.

Just as the rainy morning set the tone, the upward-curving mountain continued the melody, and at 1500 m high, the snow took the lead. In the silence of the forest, children's chirping voices and the growls of the adults fit in just as naturally as the spring arias of the birds. Silence also had its voice, my own inner voice, became one with trees, sky and earth, distracting me from the fact that the boots were hurting my feet, my breathing quickened, warning me to slow down.

The wind made the snow cover wavy, four steps up, four steps down, small waves followed each other rhythmically, just like in life, once up, once down, sometimes with greater elan, sometimes with less, and that was all right. It was all part of the road to the top.

The cloud hugging the mountain did not want to disperse, wind took control over with strong confidence, as we reached the highest peak in our region, at an altitude of 1770 m, the top of Lakóca.

The expected final of hiking would be a wonderful view.

Well, at 1,600 m I was almost certain that the visual experience would be lacking. And so it was. The top was shrouded in fog, neither to the right nor to the left, nor down, nor up, could be seen anything. However, the cold wind quickly reframed my expectation, I shrugged my shoulders, thinking to myself that that was all, after all, they don't sit on Mounteverest and wait for the sun to come out either.

But, the goal is ticked and that's the point. While we were descending, quiet settled in my heart, the whole day had been about the road, recoloring the day’s experience.

And as we descended, nothing could have made us forget the harsh welcome more than the fact that the sun gradually gained strength over the harsh clouds, pushing them away, bringing to the table the wonderful sight that had been right in front of our noses all along.

When we got back to the car, the afternoon sun caressed my tired legs, we headed back feeling recharged, sun skating on the clay sea of mud, it wasn't so scary to follow it from the car, let's just say I wasn't the driver😊.

As always, at the end of the day, some thoughts settled down:

- in our successes, the important thing is not the success itself, but the path leading to it, with its challenges, difficulties and lessons

- as long as we are open, paths are revealed that we did not even expect

- when setting a goal, we also have to take into consideration the possibility of failure, but goals can always be reformulated

- in the journey to our goal, environment is at least as important as the people who are by your side on the way

Let's go, my dear friends, every adventure is a step closer to ourselves!