Pisgah

I went hiking up to the top of Mt. Pisgah early yesterday afternoon. The sign at the trailhead says it's "steep in spots" which, in my opinion, is a gross understatement. Most of the trail books I've seen list it as a "moderate" hike but the rockiness of the path, especially near the summit, makes it a bit tougher than average.

The almost 360° view from the top is well worth it though, and yesterday was a nice crisp day which made for some spectacular shots. There's a radio/tv tower that blocks part of the view and an observation platform at the top which ends up being a nice little social area for people to chit-chat after the climb.



The trees are starting to change a bit at that elevation, hopefully it'll be a nice leaf year.

Dreaming

I rarely remember my dreams, so I've started trying to record the ones that happen to still be in my memory when I wake up. One of those happened last night. It's not a particularly odd and/or disturbing one this time.

I was with a friend (I don’t know which one) in what felt like a courtroom type of setting. It wasn’t an actual courtroom, but there was a definite feel of my side vs. their side type of thing going on. I was on one side of the room with my friend (it feels like my sister?) and she was arguing about something with a woman and man on the “other side” of the room.

My sister (it’s definitely her, I can tell that now) has just said something about religion and marriage and the woman is responding to her. That’s when I chime in with my opinion. I don’t remember the specifics of everything that’s being said, but the woman says something about Jesus not renewing someone’s marriage, thus proving her point (don’t know what her point was or if the “renewing” thing is in the Bible anywhere). My response has something to do with “reality” and how it’s perceived differently by everyone, which silences the woman and proves her wrong somehow.

I wake up.

It's pretty easy to connect things to the waking world in this one:

I've recently been called for jury duty (I go the end of this month), so there's the courtroom, us vs. them thing.

I began reviewing our Policy Manual at work yesterday and found several inconsistencies concerning our equal opportunity and discrimination policies. And I have a history of pointing out religious overtones in the workplace with Human Resources. So the equal rights/keep religious opinion to yourself thing is fresh on my mind. It also reinforces the us vs. them image of the room I was in.

I also began re-reading a book on Toltec Wisdom last night, and the chapter I read concerned how we all live in our own reality and have others’ realities pushed onto us from the time we’re born. What we choose to accept and add to our own reality depends on us and no one else. I’ve started the book before but never finished it as it didn’t seem to do anything for me.

Pretty cool how the mind sorts everything out and puts it all into a nice little sketch for me to act out while I'm asleep.

Walkin

I did something today that I haven't done in over a year: I went walking in the woods. I scanned through my pics on Flickr and it looks like the last time I did that was back on July 13 of last year (I went down to Brevard with a friend and walked around looking at waterfalls and possible camping spots). I went camping almost a year ago today, but after that I pretty much stopped going outside completely.

I went to the Blue Ridge Parkway today and stopped at the French Broad River Bridge and walked north on the Mountains to Sea Trail. I ended up out there for about 35 minutes. It was nice to be in the woods again.

Labor Day Hermit

Labor Day Weekend 2008 has come and gone, and how did I spend it? I spent about 30 minutes on Saturday to at the grocery store and then did the same today, otherwise I went through the entire 3 days sealed away inside the apartment.

I didn't even set foot outside at all on Sunday.

I keep doing this; pulling farther and farther into myself and avoiding contact with everyone. Am I really that scared of everything?