"It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves." - Edmund Hillary
I have read about, and subsequently had an interest in, minimalism for many years now. It has lead me to second guess purchasing something to make me feel good, helped me to not accrue debt, lead to many painful inward observations, and given me peace in enjoying the simple.
I would not call myself a minimalist in the traditional sense, but then again how does one define a minimalist? I think that to the average person from the US a minimalist is a person with just a backpack full of belongings who is tout on the open road, no family or commitments. The wonderful thing that I have learned about minimalism is that the true definition is whatever you want it to be. For me minimalism has involved a hard look at prioritizing what is important and simplifying or eliminating what is not. Within this definition I think that minimalism is customizable and attainable for everyone.
So why the mountain minimalist? I love hiking and feel that you never truly understand how much your possessions weigh you down until you carry them up a mountain on your back. Simplifying what you need is crucial or else you will fatigue yourself very quickly. Furthermore when you stand on top of a mountain and look down, everything man made is so small and the surrounding mountains are so large. The viewpoint always helps to calm me after the struggle of moving upward, pushing myself to go faster. It is that I suddenly realize that I am just a dot and that has a comfort to it. Some people may see this as terrifying but I think it is more terrifying to believe that every decision I make is significant in the world. Being so significant would be utterly paralyzing, instead I am allowed to make mistakes and those mountains will still be there.
There are several purposes that I have in starting this blog. One is to help myself with my day to day struggles. It is hard for me to be constantly bombarded by images and messages telling me I need more to be happy. I will be the first to admit that I have very childishly felt unhappy that I did not have something that someone else had. Also I've been working on ways to hack my life (a phrase that still confuses me) to help simplify and I would like to share with others in hopes that it helps anyone with their journey.
