High Sierra Pause: Insights for Resilient Living

I just found this in a 2011 file. Amazing how reading “old” words offers insights for resilient living for today’s crazy times. Might have written this 15 years ago, but the whatever muse whispered then is calling to me now.

It reads...

Insights for Resilient Living

Just returned from a week above 10,500 feet: sleeping under the stars and clouds, battling mosquitoes and temps down to 25 degrees at night, plus gorgeous vistas and wildflowers.

This year, while I wanted to go, I felt tremendously pressured by the economy and pending work NOT to go. After all, 7 days without cell phone and email.  What if someone needed me?

Alas, no one did. Or let me reframe that—people figured out “stuff” on their own.  In the meantime, I figured out “stuff” that might very well help me cope with the current recessionary times:

1. No one should travel alone.  In today’s crazy world, we NEED other people to share the decisions, sights, laughter, and burdens. Who travels with you?  Who has your back when the going gets rough?

2. Don’t push the river.  We crossed many a cold, rushing river this trip.  I am not adept at standing upright and hopping across boulders that fit legs far longer than mine. The very force of the water intimidates me.  But it is what it is.  How often do I want something to be other than what it is?  I push against reality instead of just accepting and leaning into it.

3. Surrender to the now.  How easy it was to suddenly find myself thinking about the work that had to be done when I returned. Every time my mind went there, I mentally pulled myself back. I realized I could do nothing about anything until I returned. NOW was all I could deal with. Great lesson to carry back to the base camp, I call my office.

These are my insights for resilient living. Can you share yours?