About a month ago, I spent the day hiking in the mountains with a few friends — an escape from the city and a chance to breathe in some crisp, fresh air and clear my head a little. My head has needed some clearing recently.
The weather was perfect for a leisurely hike: a paper-thin mist hung low in the morning sky, just barely covering the peaks of the mountains in a hazy gray while below the valleys were filled with verdant trees and crimson rocks that shined as they caught the errant rays of sunshine that peeked through the light fog. It was warm, but a soft, refreshing breeze crept around the mountains every few minutes, rustling the leaves around us.
Understandably, we all spent a good amount of time staring up at the majesty around us, looking out into the horizon at the unending towers of rock and at the expanses of the blue-gray sky. Well, almost all of us.
Accompanying us on our hike were two young girls, neither above the age of five, who would occasionally take a break from looking up and crawl into the bush to stare intently at the ground. Most of the time, this went unnoticed; after all, they were young, easily distracted. We, the grown-ups, were enraptured by the scenery in front of our eyes, not at the ground beneath our feet.
After a while, I became intrigued: what was it that was so captivating to these young girls, what made them want to crawl onto their hands and knees every few minutes and explore? The next time they disappeared, crawling into the bush, I decided to join them.
In front of me was a whole colony of anthills, arranged meticulously with pathways up and around the hills, as if the ants themselves were the best of urban planners and were keen on improving efficiency. The ants traveled around these hills, seemingly mountains to them, with coordination and a sense of purpose. It was hauntingly beautiful.
All this time, while I had my head stuck in the clouds and mist and while I stared at the mountains in front of me, I had been walking past another mountain range beneath my feet — a natural wonder unnoticed by everyone but two young girls who brought me back down to earth, on my hands and knees.
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