Place Where You Live:

Queenstown, New Zealand

I’m a simple guy. I appreciate beauty and simplicity.

Queenstown, New Zealand- gentle, quiet, and underpopulated. It is not the type of tourist destination you’ll find on a “top ten” list on TripAdvisor. I feel small, like an insect ambling around New York City, yet in control; I’m alone and everything I see is mine for the time being. There’s aromatic lavender fields brushing my feet, the understanding and chill mountains dominating the horizon, and the playful sun casting her fiery yet earnest gaze on the blue-as-can-be water.

I’m staring at nature itself;, my surroundings are pure and unblemished. Many activists attack civilization, saying how everything manmade is a violation of nature. Let’s be honest, it is impossible to maintain a raw world. There will always be man, but what’s important is that we also have nature, at least right now. I’m grateful for what lies before me and I am one with the world… we are in harmony.

Sure, there are a lot of problems in the world: chiefly, issues based on contempt and inequality. Plus, the nature I see might soon no longer be. But in this moment, right now, I don’t care about anything because there’s no need to worry. Right now is just for my family, the world, and me.

That’s all there really is to nature: bliss. Just take a step back and enjoy everything with a clear mind and a full heart. Be grateful and appreciate it all, life’s always changing. One minute, you have something, and the next minute, you don’t. That’s what I realize as I inhale the lavender scent that fills the silent, uninterrupted air.

I sit on a tree stump overlooking a hill that spills into the sea ahead. There’s a colony of rocks waiting to be skipped, smooth and lustrous like silver spoons. I pick one up and chuck it with a flick of my first, like people do on TV. It took a flight from the other side of the world to be here and feel what I feel, but it’s all worth it. Watching the rock ricochet twice before sinking, I feel a yearning rise from deep within my soul, from the gut. Is it wanderlust? As soon as I feel inspiration manifesting, I realize I’m just hungry.