June 14

The most wonderful thing about being somewhere like the Matopos is being reminded of what is important and what really isn't worth worrying about.  When you are out in the bush or on top of a large rock overlooking the landscape beneath, you have this wonderful sense of separation from the world.  All that you worry about, all that you give so much importance to suddenly seems, not ridiculous, but irrelevant in the great scheme of things.  You realise that the slogan that holds the most truth is not Black Lives Matter or All Lives Matter, but rather No Life Matters. Not really.

That is not to say you should go out and obliterate half the world's population.  I do not mean it like that.  What I mean is that our lives in terms of the history of the world are nothing.  Humans give themselves so much importance: we stamp our feet and wave our banners; we want this and that.  'I'm important!  I'm important!' we shout. 'Listen to me.  I am the most important person here!'

But when you look at the world from above and see humans as tiny little ants rushing here and there, clutching this and grabbing that, you realise how it is all just a game.  Shakespeare put it so aptly when he wrote of life: 'It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.'  

Matopos is a wonderful place because of the silence and the majesty of the boulders, piled one on top of another.  Huge stones are held up by tiny ones; some look as though they are about to roll away, but they have been doing this for thousands of years.  This is a landscape that has seen so many people come and go, everyone strutting and fretting his or her hour upon the stage but ultimately heard no more.  The biggest problem with our world is the ego, the insatiable desire to dominate, to be right and to be on top of the pile.  We need to understand our insignificance.

We return home in the afternoon, ready to face another week.  My goal is to try and push things away from me and not get involved.  It is true what they say in meditation: you need to be an observer.  Stand back from your life and take stock of it.