A different terrain

I have been here in Peru for a week and 2 days with 8 other women from around the world. We have just completed our first peak with 2 more to go. We have shared rooms, stories, lives, meals, supplies and the list goes on. We are a team and we will continue to be a team for the next 2 weeks. These women are new to me and we all come with our own personalities and quirks. The funny thing about a team is how cohesive it becomes with passing time. Of course there are struggles, disagreements and annoyances but that is part of building cohesion. Here in Peru we are learning to watch out for one another, to share and to put the team needs first. We range in ages and I am understanding that I can learn from those that may be younger or older. Tomorrow we all head to Bolivia to climb a 19,700 ft peak. We are anxious and a tad nervous but as a team we will succeed.

Tomorrow is the day that I have been preparing for over 6 months.  I am in South America, Peru to be exact to take the first trek and climb of a 3 week 3 peak journey.   I am hoping that my body and mind will guide and support me.  Although I have trained and feel able,  we never know what each day will bring  us.  I have some angst.  I wonder if I will have the stamina?  Will the altitude cause my lungs to gasp “no more.”  I have to have faith that these middle aged legs will keep moving and remember what it is they have to do.  I have faith in this body.  It has not failed me yet and I trust it won’t fail me now.

There are times where it is required that we go with the flow and travel is one of those times.  Make no bones about it.  These days travel requires a kamakaze type of attitude as one maneuvers through the mazes of airport security and a host of other variables.   It takes nerves of steel and the patience of Buddha himself to come out unfazed.  Many of us know the feeling of finally getting to our destination feeling as if we have come out of a war zone.  Learning to breathe and observe all the time realizing that this too shall pass goes a long way towards keeping our sanity.  Navigating foreign terrain is a steep learning curve but shakes us out of our complacent existences.  Without travel we cease to know the world.  We cease to realize just what we are capable of.   It gives us experience and makes us road warriors.  As I prepare to enter this foreign terrain of South America, there will undoubtedly be obstacles.  I will live and hike with 8 other women I do not know.  There is no doubt in my mind that there willbe test and challenges along the way.  I also know that if I go with the flow, breathe and stay centered its possible I can be unflappable.  We shall see.

In October of this year I am heading to South America. I have never been to that part of the world and never really had a burning desire to do so.   Whenever my spouse asked me to visit Argentina I found ways to shrug it off with an idea to go somewhere else.  I guess fate had another plan.  While surfing the internet, I happened to come across the Peaks Foundation and a chance to climb 3 peaks in 3 weeks.  Initially I thought who the hell would want to do that and why.  Well the answer proved to be me so i applied.  I had climbed Kilamanjaro and done a few other things so I thought maybe I had a shot of making the team.  Since the Peaks foundation only chose 13 women from around the world, I figured it might be a long shot but what the hell.  Months passed and I had somewhat forgotten but  held onto the possibility.  My mind loved the idea and the excitement of meeting these other women, exploring a new part of the world and at the same time helping women and girls.   Peaks had appealed to my love of adventure and my humanitarian interest; a win win for all.   8 months after I had applied, I learned that I had been chosen for the team.   So now, let the journey begin.

I am busy.  In fact, I am really busy.  In three weeks I head to South America to climb 3 mountains (more about that later.)  We are all busy or at least we claim that we are.  I think in our society we tend to think if we are not busy we are slackers or somehow succumbing to laziness.  Sometimes we can make ourselves so busy that we forget the little things.  We forget about others.  We have allowed technology to dictate our lives and time pieces to tell us how much time we have.  I am so busy that today I almost lost a valuable opportunity.  My neighbors daughter stopped by to ask us to please come by to say happy birthday to her 89 year old mother.   How could I find the time for that?  I was busy and occupied.  Stuff was going on in my life.  I had to be somewhere soon.  I stopped.  I was blessed with the gift of a realization that this other stuff could wait.  I went, I sat, I talked and gave her the biggest birthday hug I could muster.  The look on her face lit the entire room.  That small moment made her day and let her know she was loved and cared for.  I also felt loved and cared for.

It is interesting speaking about bravery.  When I thought about bravery yesterday I had forgotten that today is Sept 11.  I usually remember every year as it was a day that changed the lives of so many.  It touched us all and made us a feel a little more vulnerable.  I was living in Washington DC at the time and on my way to a class when my husband called to tell me what had happened.  The advice was to turn around and go home as the city was shutting down and all hell was getting ready to break loose.  That day all eyes were glued to the box as we watched people plummet to their deaths.  It was also a day we became one as countrymen and felt unified.  As I reflect back on that day I once again think of bravery and give a silent prayer to lives lost and changed that day.

I woke up this morning thinking about bravery and what it means to be brave.  On the 60th birthday of Ruby Bridges the little 6 year old girl who desegregated schools in the south, it was a natural theme.  I thought about the steeling of the self that little girl would have possibly done to shield herself from what she would face that day.  Actually knowing that others did not want you there and would make it obviously known.  The photo of her small body flanked by 6 foot men wearing arm bands said it all.  What posessed Ruby and her parents to put her on the front line?    It is my guess that most parents would not have been so generous with the safety of their child.  The Bridges were different and saw Ruby as a change agent.  Sometimes it is necessary for us to give up our safety and comfort to risk for something better.  Of course they were afraid but I think deep inside they knew that something better would come out of it all.  Who better to do it than an innocent 6 year old child?   When someone calls us brave many of us may not see ourselves that way.  We feel the butterflies in the stomach and the heart palpitations but like 6 year old Ruby, we steel ourselves and keep going.   We have faith there is something better on the other side.