TRUST

It is the end of July and I just got back from my yearly epic trip out west!  Cycling through the Cascades and around Crater Lake was a wonderful reprieve from a tough first half of the year.  It fueled my spirit where my confidence and ability were being challenged by finances, work stress, and relationships, making me feel the years and wear.  We all have a secret formula to what makes us overcome, persevere and rise to greater heights, one of the main ingredients for me it is to escape on a voyage through nature's many wonders with kindred spirits.  I desperately tried several times this year to get there.  I was thwarted by various factors; family challenges, storms, bad timing...  It was getting to the point where I was questioning if I should just give up on the goal and simply hunker down until next year.  I made uncertain shots in the dark at scheduling a new adventure, not really thinking they would materialize and even if they did, I thought something would surely come along to derail my attempt before I got there.

Whatever leads us to a particular place at a particular time with particular people (often strangers the way I travel) never seems completely random.  For whatever I went through to finally get there, the particular people I met last week were unique in their strength, inspiration, and appreciation of the journey and each other as we breathed in the rich oxygenated air of the Ponderosa Pine, swooped down the miles of curves with rarely another soul in sight aside from the bucks and bunnies, ground up the long miles of incline to ancient lava fields of basalt giving way to magnificent views of majestic peaks: Hood, Jefferson, Hope, Grace and Charity, weaved in and out of the PCT and encountered even more intrepid voyageurs at the trailheads.

It granted me perspective on life back home, beckoned me to stay, alternately, it inspired to pursue.  I arrived knowing I belonged in my heart, and as the week went on, the trust in my resolve and desire to get there for all the right reasons was affirmed.  Clarity came regarding the triggers throughout daily routines that invade any time for retreat at home.  I was able to take time and feed my soul on my own terms, not according to imposed limitations.  I thought about what I could start removing from my life to give more space to certain people, nature, and reading (I went through 5 books in two weeks, where I couldn't even get through one in the last 6 months!).

So I challenge the reader: take inventory of your life, your friends, your activities, your depth.  Visualize what you want it to be according to your own criteria, not the world's, appreciate what the natural world has to offer us, and even if it takes years, nurture it and live it!

Smith Rock - Oregon