I had a rather overwhelming moment a few days ago. A few things hit me all at once: I’m moving 3,000 miles away from my family; I won’t have most of my things anymore; I don’t have a steady income; lots of my personal relationships have changed, and some people I’ve lost entirely. After letting all of that sink in, I felt a bit displaced. So far I’ve been resolute in maintaining my “live life to it’s fullest” attitude, knowing that all this change is helping me do that. But keeping that attitude sometimes means pushing back the feelings of loss and uncertainty that come with big changes. You can’t push them back forever, as I learned last week, eventually they will rush up and demand to be dealt with. So how exactly do you deal with them? How do you find ground when you are intentionally leaving it? How do you make a home when you don’t have one any more?

Re-invent it.

I think I may cry...

In the second installment of the Earth Treks Self Rescue seminar we learned how to swoop down from above and rescue an injured climber. Again, this further proved how inadequate my knowledge base had been to deal with an emergency in the field. A lot of what we learned from this point forward uses common sense and those basic knots, plus the belay escape. While practice is required, with those core skills and some creativity, you can get yourself out of nearly any tight spot.

Here we go with yet another test of my descriptive/technical writing skills...

Rappel Rescue
OR
How to do it on top...

Look! A book review! I think this means my blog is becoming one of substance… “deep” if you will. Next thing you know I’ll be interviewing people…

Lately I’ve found myself questioning just about every aspect of my life. From belief structures to habits – this new phase of boldness has empowered me to explore beyond my comfort zone. Lots of this exploration has happened through reading, something I used to take a lot of pleasure in, but lost the habit of when school and work pressures increased. It only makes sense that in this time of new beginnings and re-invention that I’d pick it up again.

My latest (whole) book accomplishment is “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz, recommended by Amy of Expand Outdoors (thank you Amy!). Here I will try my best to do it justice. What you really ought to do is just go buy a copy for yourself, but if you need convincing, here I go…