A ninety-minute slow hike up from Oberalp Pass takes me to the Tomasee, or Lake Tuma, as we would call it in English-speaking countries.
The Tomasee is the source of the Rhine River, and seems to be fed by glacial melt.
The water is cold and clear, reflecting the northern face of Piz Badus so that it looks like there is snow under the water.
It’s the off-season; soon the winter snows will come, but for now, the skies are welcoming and I have the lake to myself.
I explore the rock, look at the lake from many angles, see the lake leaking down through a crack in the rock, starting the flow that is Europe’s second-longest river.
I wonder how long it would take a molecule of water to reach the North Sea, 1,230 kilometers away.
Would I be able to walk faster?
I don’t know for sure.
I would need to stop to eat and sleep, but the molecule of water would not need these things.
It would keep moving without even a second of rest.
I wonder at beginnings in general – the beginning of a river, the beginning of a life, the beginning of an adventure.
All start with infinite possibility, the curiosity of what may be just around the next corner.
Beginnings grow into something bigger, something grand, something exciting.
And, yes, they will all eventually end.
The river.
A life.
An adventure.
We must make the best of the direction they take us.