Embrace Your Horizon

“pause and look ahead - embrace your horizon”

- Prof G

Pause and look ahead - embrace your horizon.

You Are a Circle

By Prof G

I opened the book “You are a Circle” by Professor G, as I often do in the hours before mid day, most days. For those of you who don’t know the book, and I’m guessing many people don’t, as he self published this work of art, inspiration and meditation. Therefore word of mouth is the best way to learn about it. 

Now you know. Do what you will with that recommendation.

I open it a lot of days with the intentions of allowing whatever page speak to me to speak. My ears to hear are ready to listen. 

I opened it this same day with that very intention. I was prepared to listen, and when I opened the book, the quote at the top of the page is  what I read. 

“Pause and look ahead - embrace your horizon.”

though this felt like at least a spin on some catchy cliches, if not outright one - I couldn’t seem to remember; reading it on this day seeped into my consciousness completely differently than it ever had before.

I slowly raised my eyes from the page of the book to what was before me.

What was before me? The Horizon. the same as it always is, off in the distance. 

Before the horizon lay the beautiful masses of water called the Twin Lakes, with mountain members of the Sawatch range off to the left, and dense forest thickets blanketing the hills.

and beyond that,

the endless horizon, that not even the mountain peaks could bear witness to.

I squinted my eyes to try and view it as clearly as I could. It seemed foggy, faded, like a distant memory you have that you ever debated actually happening. 

Yet it was there. And I was here. never to get close to touching her, no matter how much I tried.

But what stuck out about the phrase today was not actually the word horizon - though it may command the most power in that sentence. It was the term : embrace, and the roll it played in grounding, and establishing the whole phrase.

For in reading it on this day, I realized that it does not say to just ponder what your horizon may be - what twists and turns it may take, and what lies awaiting in the future, or under the shadow of the statue(any LOST friends out there?!) at the end. 

but it asks for the reader just to be still, to pause,

to look beyond what is right in-front of me(despite how beautiful it may be)  

and knowing, that i will never actually reach what is on the horizon, not just to accept that, and not worry about it, but rather, to embrace it.

Embrace is such a powerful word as well here. 

What is an embrace? It is a hug, a warm show of affection, of caring, of acceptance, welcoming and love between two souls.

and embrace does not have to be reserved for just someone you know. 

but it is an ultimate show of: I love and accept you, I see you on the same plane as I am. We exist together, though forever separated by an existential distance,

and I welcome the experience we shall share.

embrace your horizon. 

Embrace your horizon

Will I ever know what my horizon will hold? 

Will I even know if I ever make it there?

the answer is no. for no one reaches the horizon. 

it is an impossible task.

but one must continue journeying towards it, because it is the only way ahead. 

the journey forward is home.

a home that is warm, caring, accepting, welcoming, and loving, 

a home that shares, and wraps you up in an endless embrace.

the horizon awaits.

embrace. it.

and whatsoever may come along with it.

- caleb 🌊 🌊

I wrote this over a year ago, back when Amy and I had only been living in the van less than a week. Little did I know what embracing my horizon would come to look like over the next 12 months. The horizons I’ve seen have been towering mountain peaks, still alpine lakes, otherworldly kingdoms of red rock, communities of ancient cacti, lush forests full of magical fungi and foliage, and rolling hills dotted with trees. I am humbled by all the experiences I’ve had, the sights I’ve seen, and the horizons I’ve embraced. And yet, even after a year, nothing has changed about my sentiment towards the phrase. Embracing my horizon is a day by day mantra, a moment by moment remembrance to be in the moment now, but to be able to welcome with open arms whatever my lie ahead of me on my path. And I challenge and encourage you to do the same.