Mind blowing

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Marian Florinel Condruz on Unsplash

At times I do enjoy playing with words.

I went to Lynton today to get some peace and rest. The last few days were quite eventful in many ways and I simply needed a desert day.

When I arrived, I wanted to just lie down and go to sleep, but as I was welcomed by beautiful sunshine, I forced myself to go at least for a short walk in the Valley of Rocks. I forgot how windy this place can be. A few times I thought about going back, but I pushed myself to climb at least to my favourite rock. There were moments when it was hard to stay upright, that’s how gusty the wind was. I had to put the hood on even before I started climbing up. There was that constant wooshing sound around. You could almost hear the next blow before feeling it. When I was walking back down the wind was coming from a different direction and it started ‘playing’ on my jacket. The dangling elastics on my zip pockets were rattling against the main fabric and the hood was flapping like a loose sail. When I got to the bottom of the valley, it was a bit warmer and I took the hood off. I was walking against the wind and it was blowing right through my hair. The sensation was just phenomenal. It was like with every single gust of wind, there was something blown out of my mind. I felt like I was getting more and more headspace – physically and metaphorically.

I always thought that there was something powerful about taking your thinking outside. It’s like sometimes (in my case rather often) you need to have your mind blown – literally. It makes space, changes perspective, refreshes and cools down and brings peace. I guess, that’s where my idea of coaching the mountains comes from.

Whatever is on your mind, on your heart and in your soul – take your thinking outside. Take it for a walk, for a run, a ride, a hike – whatever speaks to you – just take it outside and see what happens.

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.