When you first enter the backcountry, a mountain is a mountain,
a lake a lake, and a tree a tree. But then something may happen,
perhaps after crossing a pass, or climbing an especially difficult
ridge or peak. Suddenly, a mountain is no longer a mountain, a
lake no longer a lake, and a tree no longer a tree. What we might
call home—being rooted in a world of culture which is itself rooted
and inseparable from the natural world in which it rests—is the
center where we bring the circle round. Then, the mountain is
once again a mountain, a lake once again a lake, and a tree once
again a tree. Beautiful is the circle.