Life Is A Waterfall

Upon one of my epic all-day hikes of Mount Wilson, I found myself staring at Sturtevant Falls and really taking it in for once. I'd seen it many times; it's the first resting point along my 14-mile journey. I'd appreciated it before, but usually only momentarily before getting lost in thought again. I'd never truly appreciated it until that day when I really looked at it with relaxed but dedicated focus. 

I discovered there were only two ways to appreciate its beauty: as a whole or zero in on one singular part. With billions of water molecules, millions of droplets, and thousands of streams all rushing by at breakneck speed, there were just too many elements to be able to appreciate more than one at a time. It was easy to enjoy them all in concert together, taking in the big picture of the whole greater than the sum of its parts. But to enjoy the parts, I had to focus on only one, not only because my monkey brain can only focus on one thing at a time, but also because they moved quickly and were soon gone forever. 

Both the whole and its parts offered great beauty to behold, and both were completely different, as was the beauty different parts offered. I softly took in the tall towering tale of the entire waterfall and felt like I was staring at a moving painting. I looked at individual cascades composed of countless ever-flowing and ever-changing droplets, fascinated by speed and infinity. I watched a bubble form at the bottom of the waterfall, slowly travel towards me and then down the creek to pass forever out of sight, laughing in joy at such a small story I'd never bothered to notice before. Each experience was utterly and delightfully unique.

As I pondered these observations about the waterfall, it suddenly occurred to me it is a perfect metaphor for life. Just as there were billions of water molecules and it was impossible to observe them all, there are billions of people on Earth and it's impossible to meet them all, to get to know them all, and see all their journeys. Although we meet a great host of people, connect and forge lots of various relationships, there will always be billions we never know. So many stories we'll never get to see and hear that all offer great depths of beauty. Like all the droplets, everyone and their stories are soon gone forever. Yet, in their place, new people with new stories arrive, often treading very similar paths like the streams of the waterfall. In addition to people, there is a seemingly endless amount of beauty in the world thanks to art and nature, and it's impossible to observe it all. 

The people, places, and things we do get to appreciate are forever rushing by, not only because they have a shelf-life, but also because they are always changing. Nothing and no one ever stays the same, just as the water molecules didn't ever stop and stay in place. Nature, life, people, and art are always on the move. Change is the only constant. A waterfall wouldn't be a waterfall if it wasn't in a constant state of flowing change. Knowing that every moment of beauty is unique because the next moment will be different is what makes things truly beautiful. 

Even pieces of art that objectively remain the same are always subjectively different, not only between different people, but between different versions of ourselves. As we grow and change, we experience familiar things differently. Not even art can resist the flow of the waterfall.

No matter how many individual parts we are able to observe and appreciate in our lifetime, the whole is always available for admiration. We can not know the amount of beauty there is in the world but can still be overwhelmed by it. We can not know every person but we can know humanity. We don't have to see everything to know that everything is worth seeing.

Not all big pictures are quite so big, either. There are countless smaller big pictures ripe for consideration. We don't need to analyze every player to enjoy the brilliance of a team. We can walk away from a beloved television series with a handful of big long-lasting emotional lessons after seeing hundreds of episodes, each with its own small soon-forgotten lessons. We can not know all there is to know about a person but can still see their soul clearly.

Forrest Gump was wrong. Life isn't like a box of chocolates, it's like a waterfall. It is a beautiful, chaotic, always flowing, and always changing waterfall. There is simply too much to be able to take it all in and acknowledge or appreciate every unique element. All we can do is be thankful for the parts we do get to see and know personally, and occasionally take a step back to enjoy the big picture.