Travel Diary Day 18,241

Look closely, in the far away. It’s the Swiss Alps!

MOUNTAINS

I see the Swiss Alps for the first time, and I’m sure they see me.

How could they not see and know everything from their elevated place in the world? Elevated by both height and time, being as they are, on a journey of 770 million years. 

I’m on a speeding train from Geneva to Luassane, an immaculate and very punctual speeding train. The blurred edges of brown buildings streak past me, interspersed with brightly coloured railway graffiti, street art and grass.  

Unsure where I am on the map, I only know that I got on the right train, going in the right direction. Eight hours travelling on four hours sleep forces my head back, I take a deep breath and consciously drop my shoulders.  Curiosity forbids my heavy eyes from closing.  

Warehouse – building – graffiti – building – fence  -  house – grass-  building. 

Then – rising up in the small spaces in between, in the far distance - the Swiss Alps.

I wasn’t looking for them, or expecting to see them, despite being in Switzerland. My limited attention is on time, my inability to read or understand French, watching for the next stop, and not forgetting personal belongings.  

Yet suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, with solid and certain majesty, here they are.  Imposing geometric silhouettes against a winter solstice sky. White apexes glisten with streaks of silver and white. I’m transfixed on the distant spectacle, no longer seeing buildings at all. 

These mountains completely and unapologetically take up all the space they need to be in the world. They are right where they belong.

My breath hitches at the sight of them. I sit up straighter, on the edge of my seat, leaning closer to the window, closer to the Alps.  I’m hoping for longer gaps, fewer buildings so I can see more of them for longer.  Fumbling for my phone without taking my eyes from the window, I want to capture their magnificence, as if it has never been seen before, or may never be seen again.  I’ll be in Switzerland for a week, the Alps aren’t going anywhere. I’m sure I’ll see them again, but never again for the first time.  

I open my phone without looking at it, still enamoured by distant natural beauty.  One quick snap, then two, that’ll do.  I just want to look. I want to be mesmerised and hold this feeling of awe.

My fellow passengers are commuters not tourists, they scroll on their phones, read, chat, and gaze out the other window, the window without the Swiss Alps.  They don’t see them. They don’t notice this extraordinary sight because it’s a landscape they’re used to, the backdrop to their everyday lives.

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There is certainty in age old mountains, notwithstanding volcanoes and landslides of course.  At home, on the Inishowen peninsula, County Donegal, I often orient myself by Sliabh Sneacht , as it dominates the landscape, creating a point of reference for everywhere  else. Easily recognisable, in all seasons and conditions,Sliabh Sneacht is a constant.  

Can we have mountains in our internal landscape?  Something big, solid and certain, a point of reference from which we can orient ourselves and navigate back to.  

This may be religious belief, belonging to a church of faith group.   

It may be family or other meaningful relationships - romantic or friendships.   The feeling of connection to other people is a powerful way of placing self. 

Maybe it’s a physical place, one that you visit, where you permanently live or that you have left, knowing you will return, a home place. 

I acknowledge the importance of all these things in my life;  spirituality, people and place all make up my inner landscape, my internal terrain of thoughts, feelings, identity, beliefs, fears and passions.  But more than anything else, my ‘mountain’ is the natural world.   From the moon and the tides to the opening and closing of the smallest flower, nature centres me. My symbiotic and reciprocal relationship with the other- than - human world lets me know, and more importantly feel, my place in the world. 

Although I had never seen them before, just glimpsing the distant Swiss Alps, in a landscape entirely unfamiliar was exciting, but also grounding, in the same way that noticing a dandelion in a drain outside my house, over a thousand miles away is.   

Appreciating the natural world, wherever I am on the planet reminds me that I am connected to the whole. Wherever I go, I can always navigate back to this truth. this mountain.   

Just a different view.