Feel Small

Uluru & Kata Tjuta

Everyone tells you how big and beautiful Uluru is.
What they don't tell you is how it makes you feel.

After overnight stops in Coober Pedy and Erldunda Roadhouse, we arrived at Uluru on day five of our journey.

There really are no words to describe it. No photographs that can do it justice.

Thank goodness for digital cameras because I've taken hundreds already... yet none of them come close to capturing what it's actually like to stand there, looking up at it in complete awe.

We've all seen Uluru countless times in books, on television and across social media.
But seeing it with your own eyes is something completely different. Somehow it still managed to surprise me.

Its the intensity of it’s colour.
The sheer size of it.
The unexpected texture.

Standing at the base of something that has existed for more than 500 million years has a funny way of putting your own life into perspective.

It makes you feel small. In a good way.
I think that's what makes this place so magical.

The deadlines.The emails. The never-ending to-do lists that felt so important only a few days ago suddenly don't seem quite so urgent. They just seem to melt away.

Here you realise that our individual lives are just tiny little blips in the big expansive universe.

Hiking through Kata Tjuta had a similar effect.

Some of the most spectacular areas are protected by cultural restrictions, where photography isn't permitted.

At first, I'll admit, my reaction was, "Oh..."

But the more I thought about it, the more I understood.
Some places aren't meant to be shared all over social media or taken home on a memory card.

They're meant to be experienced.
To be seen with your own eyes.
To be felt with your whole being.

There is something really beautiful about that.
A reminder that not everything needs to be captured.
Some moments are enough simply because you lived them.

We've been here for a couple of days now.
Tonight is our last night before we head off early to our next destination.
I can't help but feel a little pang of sadness.
This place has stirred something deep inside me that I can't quite explain.
I want to soak up every last minute. To make sure I don't waste a second of being here.

I know I'll leave tomorrow feeling incredibly small.
I hope I leave thinking much bigger.

Maybe that's why places like this matter.
They remind us that life isn't measured by how busy we are.
It's measured by the moments that stop us in our tracks.

The moments that remind us to keep dreaming.
To keep wondering.
To keep saying yes.

Let yourself feel small.
So you can think big.
And dream even bigger.

Sarah.

P.S. If the idea of awe resonates with you as much as it does with me, I can't recommend Julia Baird's Phosphorescence enough.