A Precious Moment At a Snail’s Pace

The 100 Summits Project has taught me many things–most of which, I’m saving for the book, but a few of these lessons bear repeating here, as well as in the larger story. Case in point: the snail’s pace. I saw this lovely fellow climbing down a wall on Mt. Daimonji, in Kyoto, about a week ago. The photo doesn’t show it, but he’s sitting on the side of a nearly vertical wall of large cut stones that served as a bulwark holding up the mountainside. Around him, the September typhoon had toppled giant trees like matchsticks in the hands of