The Negev

I would have never thought that the Negev would be such an important place for me. Being disconnected from both time and electronics allowed me to hear and listen to myself in a way I never have before. I took a moment during a rest time on a summit of of the mountains and say on the edge if the cliff. I plugged my ears and focused on an eagle until it was just me and the bird and I imagined the freedom it must feel flying over endless stretches of sand and hills. 

We took a ten minute walk alone on a trail in silence and for one of the first times in my life there was complete silence inside of me, only sounds from nature around me and the crunch crunch of my footsteps. 

At the end of the whole Negev adventure I looked down at the feat me and my best friends have acheived and not concerning our sweat, stench, and filthiiness, we felt unstoppable. 

I am not really sure how to describe the feeling that breathing in the same air as those thousands and thousands of years ago did; touching the same ground that snakes use as a runway to prey, and the sight of endless sandy mountains gives you. I suppose I could describe it as unreal. But there is something even more than that. Maybe it is holy.