As an athlete a hiker included...I enjoy reading your trekking journey simply because it's good pain that some how we tend to repeat. We make decisions and while trekking you ask yourself a million questions. " How did I get here?" "Why?" It all makes sense at the end of the journey.
I enjoy following along with your journeys- I am especially glad I read through this one. Maybe you should have brought your skateboard. It would have made the food so much more light in your journey. Or you could have carried the skateboard too. Tough choice. Skateboard or no skateboard. Anyhow, I am glad they welcomed you as a wary traveler at their restaurant. As always, thanks for your sage wisdom, and a nod to the Southwestern Advantage days.
Thanks for following along Calvin! I think for most of the journey, a skateboard would have been major dead weight—very little of the trail is flat or smooth, so I woulda been carrying it lol.
What stayed with me here is how the body quietly teaches what the mind keeps resisting.
There is a very old truth in our tradition: when we carry more than is needed, the weight does not just sit on the back, it enters the heart. Fear dresses itself as preparedness, effort disguises itself as wisdom, and the body patiently pays the bill.
The journey you describe feels more like tapasya, where limits are revealed, not conquered. Where discernment slowly replaces endurance, and listening begins to matter more than pushing.
In the Gita, there is a gentleness often missed: action without excess, effort without self-violence, discipline without pride. This reads like a living encounter with that balance, learned not through ideas but through aching knees and long days.
Thank you for sharing this with such plain honesty. There is a quiet teaching here that stays with you.
Thank you as always for your thoughtful remarks. I agree, fear has inspired me to carry too much most of my life, and the dropping of all that weight (physical and mental/emotional) has been very freeing.
Totally! Fear is often behind the wheel anytime I find myself over prepared. Preparation can be helpful of course, but there’s a line that gets crossed when it simply becomes a burden.
As an athlete a hiker included...I enjoy reading your trekking journey simply because it's good pain that some how we tend to repeat. We make decisions and while trekking you ask yourself a million questions. " How did I get here?" "Why?" It all makes sense at the end of the journey.
Lol yep. Beforehand, there’s so much excitement to get out there… and then at some point you go “why am I doing this to myself?”
😅
I enjoy following along with your journeys- I am especially glad I read through this one. Maybe you should have brought your skateboard. It would have made the food so much more light in your journey. Or you could have carried the skateboard too. Tough choice. Skateboard or no skateboard. Anyhow, I am glad they welcomed you as a wary traveler at their restaurant. As always, thanks for your sage wisdom, and a nod to the Southwestern Advantage days.
Thanks for following along Calvin! I think for most of the journey, a skateboard would have been major dead weight—very little of the trail is flat or smooth, so I woulda been carrying it lol.
What stayed with me here is how the body quietly teaches what the mind keeps resisting.
There is a very old truth in our tradition: when we carry more than is needed, the weight does not just sit on the back, it enters the heart. Fear dresses itself as preparedness, effort disguises itself as wisdom, and the body patiently pays the bill.
The journey you describe feels more like tapasya, where limits are revealed, not conquered. Where discernment slowly replaces endurance, and listening begins to matter more than pushing.
In the Gita, there is a gentleness often missed: action without excess, effort without self-violence, discipline without pride. This reads like a living encounter with that balance, learned not through ideas but through aching knees and long days.
Thank you for sharing this with such plain honesty. There is a quiet teaching here that stays with you.
Thank you as always for your thoughtful remarks. I agree, fear has inspired me to carry too much most of my life, and the dropping of all that weight (physical and mental/emotional) has been very freeing.
Totally! Fear is often behind the wheel anytime I find myself over prepared. Preparation can be helpful of course, but there’s a line that gets crossed when it simply becomes a burden.