Walking4Air

“We can only connect the dots that we collect, which makes everything you write about you. … Your connections are the thread that you weave into the cloth that becomes the story that only you can tell.”

This has been a strange post that I don’t really know how to put into words. In fact, now this post is actually an old post that I wrote on the 29th May. It is one I decided in the end I wasn’t going to post. It seemed somehow like I was ‘blowing my own trumpet’ and nothing about the post sat well with me. But lessons are coming abundantly to me at present and somewhere in this post there was a lesson, and with very delicate threads, it all tied in.

The other day when I wrote and posted the epilogue for my Kilimanjaro story, my friend and Kilimanjaro team-mate, Judi, left a comment on the link that posted to my Facebook page saying:

“I don’t want to climb any of the remaining 6 summits without you! Someone should write about what you contributed to our climb… Can I hijack your blog to do this?”

Judi always says the nicest things!

After reading her comment I let my thoughts run back over our trip up the mountain and I couldn’t think of any one defining moment where I did something specific for someone or where I went out of my way for someone and in the most light-hearted way, that was kind of a terrible realization! Was I really up on that mountain for myself, what could I have possibly left any of my fellow team members with? I pondered the question a while, still came up with nothing and then let it go.

After a bit of a disappointing past weekend (now about two weekends ago), it has been a week of reminding myself to let things go. Last week (now two weeks ago) I was taught patience, this week (now last week) it’s letting go and trusting that the process is perfect just the way it is. We really are never too old to learn and the lessons just keep coming and I welcome them all as they continue to help me grow. Now this week (present day) the lessons continue to come and I find myself bumping my head against the same brick wall I have bumped into countless times in my life. I’m not sure when I will learn this particular lesson, I hope it’s soon, because this one is an eina (sore) one!

“In order for it to work, the door must remain unlocked. People might enter without knocking, they might crash your party and drink your wine. Let them in, and let them drink — because you might meet somebody interesting.”

Early this morning (now mid last week) I found an email in my inbox from Judi, who was replying to an email I had sent to her.

Going back to that blog post I had posted, she mentioned how the “Epilogue” blog had touched her and how I seemed to have a way with words and that I was “so fulsome in your praise of everyone” Writing all of my Kilimanjaro posts, even the last two posts and the epilogue once again brought up all the emotions of our journey, even though it happened almost a year ago now. Writing those posts weren’t always easy and the emotions would readily come up as I typed those words out onto the pages of my computer screen.

Judi’s email continued….

“…hence my comment on wanting to hijack your blog to write about you. So if you don’t let me here goes:

Lara is one strong woman. She doesn’t brag about her accomplishments but shares them with everyone. She lives through action as well as words. Her laughter is infectious and comes at unexpected moments catching you off guard. Her joy of being alive takes hold of you and shakes you up – makes you come to your senses and acknowledge that life is good, life happens all around you and every minute counts.  She is loyal, she is generous, she is a beautiful being with a powerful spirit that takes your breath away. I’m honoured to know her, honoured to climb with her and so very grateful I met her when I was living my adventure that was so important to me. Sharing it with her made the accomplishment that much more special – being part of her adventure and her continuing adventure is a blessing. No words can say how much richer I am for her sharing her gifts with me.”

So if anyone is ever looking for a testimonial on why they should climb a mountain with me, there you have it!

 “Once you’ve shared your art and it’s resonated with a single person, it’s no longer about you — once you share it, it’s about everybody. And if your art is found by a single soul, shared with a friend who links it to a friend, and the response is whatever it is, you start to see how art becomes about everybody — just through the act of being shared.”

My blog was never created to only talk about one specific genre such as the weather, or cars, or hiking, or cooking. My blog is about my life, who inspires it and ultimately it is about getting out there into the thick of life and making the most of this life that I have, along with all the ups and the downs, the good days and the bad days because at the end of the day, it is how we chose to share ourselves with others that richly creates the life we live. Maybe through it all, we can all learn our lessons together.

 “My words have always flowed so much better on ‘paper’ than it does in person. I always said since the beginning of this blog, that if this blog can inspire one ordinary, everyday person, a person just like me, to get out there and to live their dreams, I will have succeeded.”

What Judi wrote touched me very deeply.

It’s funny how in life sometimes we wonder what value we have to offer or we wonder what our presence leaves behind for others.

Maybe it’s not really what we physically do in life, maybe it’s how we are by simply just being “me.”

For the past few weeks I have had a wonderful friend guiding me ever so gently with regards to this particular situation and whenever I need an ‘answer’ no matter what time of the day or night I ask for her help regarding certain things, she’s always got a reply and a smile for me. I’ve mostly listened to her and I’ve mostly listened to myself, completely trusting, and things were going well until this week when I forgot everything I was supposed to be doing and did what I wanted to anyway.

Full frontal face straight into the wall.

In fact, I hit the proverbial wall so hard my whole body reverberated! Ouch, that was a sore lesson to learn, again! When I see my friend next she is going to hit me hard and I will welcome the punch to my upper arm that I know is coming my way! After all, I really didn’t listen and only have myself to blame! I’m not quite sure that this particular lesson has been learnt, and I’m almost sure I’ll be meeting this wall again, but with a glimmer of hope in me, I really pray I won’t!

Patience, ah yes my favourite game! In order for things to happen, in order for anything to happen, we need to be patient. We first have to plant the seed of greatness and then we wait for it to grow. Great things take time and I need to learn how to give time, time.

I am super, abundantly blessed by the magical people who share this life with me.

Thank you for reading.

Thank you for following.

Thank you for being a part of my journey and thank you for allowing me to be a part of yours.

~ Pic from Favim