Author: Mountains of Life

Be still

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After a very long journey yesterday, I had a late start this morning. I decided to warm up on the way to Morskie Oko. For those unfamiliar with Polish mountains, it is a long walk, but a very easy and accessible. Being accessible means that it’s also very busy. Waiting in a queue for the tickets to the National Park, I wondered whether it was the best choice. I wasn’t going to turn back, so I put some sun cream and sunglasses on and set off.

I was surprised how easily I could block out the chatter around me. The trail wasn’t as busy as it could be, but it wasn’t the solitude of the Pyrenees. As soon as I blocked out the human voices, I realised how still everything was. I’m used to this valley at different times of year when there is so much life and sound in nature. Today everything is SO still. The river and the streams that are a source of sound at any other time are totally frozen. Maybe with an exception of one our most famous waterfalls, but at the moment this usually roaring waterfall turned into a very quiet stream and you can hear it only for a moment. I had my headphones with music and audiobooks, but I decide to put them in my backpack. This stillness is so profound.

After stopping at the mountain hut, I decided to go up the yellow trail for a while. I intended only to go to a good spot to take a few pictures of the frozen lake and the hut itself. I didn’t have any equipment with me apart from the trekking poles. I didn’t need crampons or ice-axe for my original plan. I kept walking up thinking that in the worst-case scenario, I’d go back the same way. The conditions up to the final climb were fantastic and even that last section was doable if one knew how. I met a few people, but those places are away from the madding crowd which makes this stillness even more profound. You could hear a bird every now and then, but apart from that there was only the sound of snow crunching under your feet, your heartbeat, your breathing… None of those could spoil that sense of stillness. It’s funny, I didn’t even sing. Neither out loud or in my head. Apart from maybe two moments when the views were so stunning, that ‘O Lord my God when I in awesome wonder…’ simply sprang to my lips. It made me realise that you can well filter out any external noise if you only want to. I often thought that I needed a quiet place to achieve this. An excuse? Possibly…

Every time I allow it to happen, this sense of stillness makes me go deeper into my heart. When I do it like that, I’m at peace.

Be still…

Hear you heart…

Hear your thoughts…

See what’s there and where it will take you…

Climb your Everest

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When I send any seasonal wishes, especially to people who I know well, it’s never just a Happy Birthday or Happy Christmas or Happy New Year etc. It is always followed by what I mean by those words in this particular moment in time. On New Year’s Day, one of my best friends, among other things, sent me this line: ‘I wish you to climb Everest this year, whatever it might mean’. She knows me very well and she knows about my love for the mountains, so this line didn’t surprise me. I started typing a reply half joking that it might not be Mount Everest, but maybe Mount Blanc or at least Monte Perdido would do. My instinctive reaction was that Everest would be too much. Think of something more realistic. At this point, I stopped typing and never sent that message.

I thought to myself, why not Everest… I recalled a prayer that wrote on the New Years Eve. Part of that prayer was about dreaming big, dreaming God’s dreams. Realistic is too small for God and Everest seems so impossible and so out of reach, but… Impossible is God’s starting point.
I’ve never made any New Year’s resolutions and I’m not a goal-setting person either. There is a lot that one might read out of this, I guess, but I don’t think that it really matters. What I started doing recently is allowing myself to dream. I don’t mean walking around with your head in the clouds. I mean trying to see and hear what ideas God plants in my heart and actually follow them. For a long time, for years, in fact, I disregarded that because I thought that whatever came to my mind was my own idea or imagination or plain fantasy. It was almost like if I wanted or loved doing something, it couldn’t possibly come from Him. Where on earth did I get this from! Never mind, important is that if you connect with Him, He does speak through your dreams and vision.

Among other things, He leads and guides us using things that we love doing and are passionate about, things that are important to us. Discovering and accepting this finally brought relief and peace as well as excitement and some sense of adventure. Responding to those ideas takes courage which I know I need more of, but I noticed something beautiful and incredibly encouraging. When something comes to my mind, crazy it might seem at the time (Everest🤔), I look at it and I say to God: ‘OK if that’s what you want me to do or be, I’ll go for it. I have no idea how and where to start, but if that’s what you want, Lord, I’ll do it’. Then things begin to happen. While you spend time with Him and that dream that He planted in your heart, you start seeing what and how and when and who… Take my Everest – you start seeing the ways to prepare your body, to get yourself to the Himalayas, how to get to the base camp, acclimatise and in many cases you start seeing the ways to finance all those things. Some of God’s dreams for us cost nothing, many need money. If you make that first step just by saying: ‘I’ll go for it’, He’ll give you whatever you need to do it.

On the mountain the Lord will provide…

It’s not magic and wishful thinking. There is still climbing to do, but we don’t do it alone… God gives us beautiful dreams and visions – for us personally, for our communities, for the world – and He reveals Himself when they become reality. He created us to thrive, not to live in a constant survival mode. There are times when life is about true survival, but then He gives us strength and sends the mountain rescue, whatever and whoever it might mean. He wants us all to live life in its fullness and wants to do amazing things for us, with us and through us. He wants you to climb Everest with Him.

What is your Everest?

Draw it… Write about it… Map it… Talk about it… Do whatever works for you, but start here and climb it this year.

The art of subtraction

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‘Subtract all that is distracting and unnecessary until only the essential remains.’

Ali Kazal on Unsplash

If you read my previous posts, you will know that I packed pretty badly for my trip to the Pyrenees. Just before that trip I tried to reflect on things I do and carry in life in general. It wasn’t an easy process and I’m sure that it affected my real packing for the Pyrenees. I had to literally go through the content of my backpack to see what I could and was willing to leave behind then and there to make my backpack lighter. It was interesting to see what was there, what I didn’t need and was ready to leave behind, what I didn’t need, but had too much value to let it go. It was a painful, but priceless lesson.

If you ever hiked, you know that you don’t always need to take the same stuff. Your backpack will be filled with different things depending on various factors: when and where you are going, solo of with other people, how long for etc. You wouldn’t take an ice-axe and crampons in mid-summer (and below the glacier) or short and sandals in winter… Or ropes and harness if you are not going rock climbing… Or ten t-shirts for a weekend… You wouldn’t take to the mountain hut the same gear as you would need while staying in shelters… Or would you… That was my major mistake the last time. I had everything to stay in cabanas – camping stove, cooking pots, super sleeping mat etc. All totally unnecessary in the mountain huts.

There are also things that you always pack – wherever and whenever you go. Things like a light, compass and map. Some food and water, waterproofs and sun cream – just to name a few.

For years my backpacks have been generally getting smaller, but I still haven’t reached the right size. Subtracting is an art. Focusing on the essential is an art.

Working on my metaphorical backpack is more difficult. I know that I need to check its content more often.

What do you carry in yours?

What are your essentials?

What weighs you down?

What can you leave behind? Temporarily or permanently…

What weight can you share with others?

What have you forgotten?