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My Rules: 2. Seek The Beauty In Everything

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for to the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent place.” – Rainer Maria Milke

On the surface, saying such a thing as “Seek the beauty in everything” seems cheesy, and somewhat not so difficult. The truth is: it is more difficult than it seems. In the worst moments of life, there is a grand beauty to the bad sides, and this rule calls to seek that even in those times. It also calls to seek the beauty in surroundings and in others, regardless of preexisting bias and preferences.

Hiking San Diego’s Red Hill, Mount Tule, and Carrizo Overlook

Yesterday, I decided to spend the morning and afternoon exploring on some hikes around Southeast San Diego. I returned to the Alverson Lava Flows nearby, with the goal of reaching the summit of Red Hill–the high point of the Volcanic Hills mountain range. Once completed with this, I also drove out to the McCain Valley Recreation Area, where I hiked to the summit of Mount Tule and explored some of the trails around the Carrizo Overlook, overlooking the Carrizo Gorge.

Hiking Mine Peak of the Coyote Mountains

Throughout the time that I have been staying on-and-off at the Carrizo Badlands Overlook in San Diego, I have been staring intently at the Coyote Mountains. After hiking down into Canyon Sin Nombre yesterday, I decided to go ahead and hike to the summit of these mountains at Mine Peak.

My Rules : 1. Right Now Is More Important

For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment. – Viktor E Frankl

The heart of this rule is to always be in the moment. Tomorrow does not matter, and yesterday is gone. Even each individual moment in the day, the one being experienced Right Now is more important than any of the rest.

Hike in San Diego’s Carrizo Badlands and Canyon Sin Nombre

Such an awesome hike today! I dropped fro Carrizo Badlands Overlook in Anza Borrego Desert State Park, into the Badlands themselves. Traversing a system of washes through the difficult land, I made my way into Canyon Sin Nombre. Dwarfed by canyon walls and ancient Lava flows, I made my way, finding a slot canyon on the opposite side from where I started. I explored the slot canyon and found myself up on the larger canyon rim. All that before turning around and coming back through it all again! 6 miles of pure San Diego awesome! Every step I took on this hike changed the land around me, opening up entirely new views and revealing previously hidden beauties. Absolutely wonderful!

Quitting Smoking and Thanksgiving in Joshua Tree

My time around San Diego has mostly been continuing, leaving me without too much to post about on my blog. Dealing with dentist appointments and the usual of enjoying this location has been the majority of recent times, really. I also had the pleasure of spending Thanksgiving weekend around Joshua Tree with family, before returning to my camping location now. To top all of this off, I’ve also quit smoking, and I’ll discuss that a bit!

Introduction to My Rules

I have written down all of My Rules on my blog already, and now I want to kick off a “series” of blog posts about them! This is just an introduction–a general overview–today. As I continue, I will be making a singular post for each rule, delving into them quite a good bit.

San Diego Sunrise and Badlands

Since my last update here, things went briefly downhill. I ended up leaving the wonderful boondocking spot I had in order to take care of some emergency issues. However, I was still determined to get back up there and get back out!

Back to the Boondocking — Mt Laguna

Fall Colors at Laguna Mountain

I spent the last few weeks in San Diego, hanging out with friends and family. Alas, it is time to get back out to the boondocking!

A Farewell to Arches and a Grand Way to San Diego

While staying outside of Moab, I made one more adventure into Arches National Park before heading out towards San Diego again. I didn’t get to see all of Arches or Canyonlands, but that just gives me more reason to return again some day! On the way, I stopped at the Grand Canyon North Rim, and headed home through Arizona and Imperial County, California.