​I’m writing this from the top of a hill. A very special hill. It’s called Dun Mor, the black hill.  I’ve come close to serious injury or actual death here a couple of times, but that’s not important right now. What is important is that it’s one of my favourite places in the world.

The view is amazing: looking out over Elenabeich and Easedale island, the firth between neighbouring islands, and really the North Atlantic. I find the contrasting scale of a 50 cottage ex-slate mining village with that of the ocean appealing and relaxing.

Then there’s this little brick structure. It’s what’s left of a WWII lookout post (see aforementioned view for details), and played home on many occasions to three young men who would occasionally travel to this tiny, out of the way place to escape the world for a few days, and do some star gazing.

You see, the closest “major” town is Oban, about 15 miles away, and tucked behind the hills. Result: no light pollution. And with a surprising number of  clear nights for Scotland, the view of the sky was astounding. I could understand why those folks so inclined referred to the view as “the heavens.”

It was on top of this hill that I ifrst got my own sense of perspective. At once tiny and insignificant compared to the infinite universe spreading out above me, and at the same time utterly significant for largely the same reasons. This much complexity in something so small when compared to something so complex on a scale beyond real comprehension.

I would lay down, or sit facing just the open sky, and lose myself in this view of the universe. On a good night, the effect was enhanced by the waves of the ocean crashing a few hundred feet below, at the base of the cliff we were perched atop.

The top of Dun Mor is a place that I just relax. Almost instantly. Everyone needs a place like this. I wish that mine wasn’t 4,500 miles from where I live, but what the hell. At least I have it.

I could probably go on some more, but i doubt that my writing skills, or perhaps words in general, can really convey what this place means to me (and really, in all likelihood, only me). And that’s probably OK.

This tiny spot, on a tiny hill, on a tiny island, off the coast of a tiny country, on a relatively small planet, orbiting an unremarkable sun, towards the end of one arm of a spiral galaxy, lost among the thoiusands in the local cluster, in a near infinite universe.

Aye, perspective.