My recent trip to the south west reminded me of something that had crossed my mind a few weeks ago; the idea that beauty is really everywhere, so long as we are open to seeing it even in the most unlikely places. Much like the light a camera will catch, so can the mind when it comes to beauty when seeing what surrounds you under the right angle for beauty to dazzle you.

Miss the right angle, and all you might see is a few dark clouds, bland patches of green grass and boring birds gliding across an empty sky... and if that is all that you can see, then no matter where you are, no matter how striking the landscapes, and no matter how mesmerising the people or events, it will never be or feel like it's enough.

And as I look around, intent on capturing beauty even in the most unlikely places, I find it. And as I realise that it really all comes down to my own capacity to allow myself to see it, I realise that I never needed to look so far away from where I was. It was all always right there, dormant or waiting for me to see it from the right angle.

I used to dream of far-away reaches, but now more than ever I find myself growing more neutral. I don't need to 'see' the world, my own lifetime wouldn't be enough already to see all there is to see exactly where I'm at. So why hurry to see the whole world when the whole world can be experienced just where we are? Sure, the landscapes and striking experiences themselves can differ in the detail, but the basis remains always the same. I could hop from one exotic region to another and collect glimpses of beauty but I wouldn't be experiencing it deep within. I'd just be collecting, and I am no collector - I am an explorer. And exploration starts right where you are.

I remember growing up in a beautiful country whose landscapes have fascinated many a tourist throughout the ages. That country was France, but all I ever saw was mostly its capital, and even as I lived there as a child, I remember feeling mostly boredom - taking for granted the city I lived in, as so many of us do. We never really had enough money to afford going on holidays, either. The best we could afford was to send me to summer camps for a couple of weeks each summer, and thankfully so because they turned out to be my only occasion to see some of the country outside the capital.

The result, though, is that I know less about that country than most seasoned travellers. And now that I have been away for over a decade, I am not sure I feel the need to explore it. I feel instead that incredible urge to explore the places around me on the island I've been living all this time and which has become my home. There is something about this land - the unstable weather explaining the deep green of its rolling hills, the craggy outlines of its cliffs and seashores... There is something there that resonates with me on a much deeper level than I could have imagined. It is something that has served to inflame my imagination at times, and I know it is something that will continue to inspire me.

Don't talk to me about far-away beauty when I now know that beauty's intrinsic value is the same absolutely everywhere. It's all about the angle in which we regard things. Beside that, I've also grown more aware that people are also intrinsically similar even in their differences, meaning that even differing cultures and societies hide in their midst the same underlying sameness I can already find right here, outside my door. This awareness means that I no longer wish to 'escape'.

Beside landscapes and pure beauty, however, is the human value that needs to be added to the equation, and I have yet to get over that one. I'm only half-way through, so to speak. I understand the value of places - the environment as such - but I know that to make the experience complete beside the ability to appreciate Life's pure beauties, the people that populate one's life are just as important. For now, I am mostly alone, or my path puts in my way a lot of negative or challenging influences. More often than not, I find myself surrounded by solitude, but I have a feeling that is just part of my path for now. Without it, perhaps I would never have gone as far as I have within myself. And maybe, just maybe, it was part of my own growth process and some day I'll find that I'm able to see people in the same way I am now able to see beauty from the right angle.

These inner 'visions' I am experiencing are changing me... slowly, much like sea waves rolling onto shore will erode the cliff face over time, making for new forms, effectively moulding the old anew... And what I'm learning has all to do with learning to live, nothing more and nothing less. Learning to be alive rather than merely exist.