Himalayas Calling: Manali

The Himalayas in all their frightening grace and profound loneliness, pulled me in, and pushed me back as I tried to take them in, tuck them away in my pocket of memories. I climbed with toes deep in their ancient earth, fingers grasping for balance, nervous, as I tripped and fell along their rocky passes. Their winds reduced my weight to the size of a feather, knocking me down and picking me up as I clung to the sides of snowy slopes. Their noxious air made me sick with nausea and curiosity, tugging me under like a dose of heroin. My boots walked onward without sensation or awareness, just one in front of the other, mechanically, until I neared the end of my journey. I felt no triumph of accomplishment as I reached the road, but more a sense of bewilderment as I looked over this estranged, compelling stretch of nature.