Date: 2005-01-17
To: A sunbeam on the sofa
Miles today: 0.0

So, I am hanging around the house today enjoying a day off from work. Gravity doesn't have today off, so I am a little lonely but enjoying some quiet time. I am trying to take in and appreciate the simple pleasure of sitting on the sofa warmed by a sun beam, knowing there is a fridge (sorta but not really) full of food just steps away. If I wanted pizza or Chinese, I could just pick up the phone and it would arrive within the hour. There is a flush toiled just steps away. These are the things that I missed and so greately appreciate when hiking. So, I am trying to savor these last days & weeks in relative luxury. I love, and right now live, to hike. But one of the great things about hiking is the appreciation one gains for the simplest conveniences & amenities in standard life. So, I am trying not to take them for granted now, knowing that my world is soon to change completely. I have been thinking a lot about just how lucky we are to be able to be doing this again, together and now. I was listening to NPR last night and there was a breif commentary that started with the author's plans to hike the AT with a friend some day. Well, his friend got hit by a car and ended up spending five months in the hospital recovering. I don't know if she recovered enough to be able to manage a thru hike physically. Like many things lately, that story really hit me in the emotional gut. Anything and everything could change in a moment. I will just get so powerfully overcome by what it really means to be able to do this: fulfill a dream, in my(relative) youth and with the person I love, my best freind. I was looking at trailplace.com and came across Wingfoot's pep talk to the class of 2005. While I have developed my own philosophy about the Apoalachian trail, how I want to hike it and what it means to me, there was something that Wingfoot said that struck me as powerfully true. He said something along the lines of: 'we (class of 2005) are extremely lucky to have the time, ability, funds, and desire to hike the entire length of the AT come together all at once.' I feel extra lucky to have these things plus a partner to share this experience with. Gravity aluded some to the circumstances of our 2001 hike. It was an amazing experience. It did end up being completely different than we expected in many ways. Unfortunately I learned too late that you DO have to listen to your body. You have to take care of things early, before they get bad. You have to take care of yourself. I guess I had this idea that I had to be tough and suck it up. That if there was something hurting me or that felt wrong, I was being a wimp. I felt like I had to prove myself. I knew that thru hiking was hard, and that was part of why I wanted to do it. To stretch and test myself. To see what I was capale of. Well, I now know that I am capable of enduring excruciating pain on a constant basis for an extened period of time. I know that I am capable of hiking under constant fatigure and nutritional defecit because I am unable to retain & absorb calories & nutrients because I am making a hospitable home to a microscopic creepy crawly that has inhabited my digestive tract. I know that under these same circumstances I am able to undergo and administer the tests of a young relationship with long term potential. Of course, I would never have been able to endure these things if the Trail wasn't one of the most amazing experieces of my life and probably THE most amazing & life changing experience of my adult life.   So, while fantastic & amazing the last hike was underscored by the recurring theme of being tested. well, unlike the SAT, that is a test I only need to take once to be satisfied with my score. I am most certainly satisfied with that score and ever so excited for the theme of this hike: fun, freedom, physical challenge (but not agony as a result of ignorance & stubborness), mental challenge and making lasting and meaningful bonds with the wonderful people I know we will meet along the way. No testing though. I studied, I passed, I graduated. Now it is time to enjoy much earned freedom!!Danger Pea