Pretty much any situation can be compared to climbing a mountain. I know I’ve used the reference plenty of times. Aaron and I went on our first hike of the season, and the entire day was a parallel experience to writing my book. I never planned to write a book. It just happened. Not unlike our last minute trip to Aspen. All I wanted that weekend was some mountain air; Aaron found last minute accommodation deals, and off we went.
In March 2013 I started my blog Rewired Life to share my life with endometriosis and healing experience. By mid-summer that year, I had a book outline. Why not? I already had the content. I began the journey of joyously writing and exploring. It was a great learning experience, I made a lot of connections about myself and my life with chronic pain
, disease, and emotional trauma. Adventure at every turn!
Our mountain escapade started much the same way. A joyous adventure with picturesque views. Exactly what I wanted. We sauntered toward Aspen Mountain and planned to walk the maintenance road to the top, riding the gondola down for free. How fun! The sun was out, I was snapping pictures, and we even found an old silver mine to check out.
As we left the mine
, the trail turned, narrowed, and the easy winding maintenance road headed straight up the mountain. The “road” got muddy, and soon was snow packed. Walking across snow turned into hiking straight up the ski mountain, trying not to slip. Tiny step after tiny step. At an elevation of 10,000ft the air is awfully thin, my thighs and lungs burned. Breaks were getting more frequent. At one point Aaron rolled up my jacket, using it as a tow rope, pulling me along. Lol!
I think he said, “We’re almost there,” showing me our location on the map, about 20 times too many…we weren’t almost there! All I could see was more snow, and no gondola. After about 1000ft of elevation gain through the snow, we found an ACTUAL road again. Taking a break, drinking all the water and eating all the food we brought for our little walk, I stood there reviewing the day thus far. A sunshine and happy faces beginning, adventure, twisting plot, steep grade, unexpected turbulence, exhaustion, wanting to turn around but its too late, needing help from loved ones, rejuvenating, getting back at it, finishing, and enjoying the view.
As I made the connection between hiking and writing my book, I teared up. The parallel was so real, especially the part of Aaron doing what he could to help. Tiny step after tiny step, I wrote a book. What began as joy, new experiences, and great conversations, led to needing breaks and often wondering what the hell I was doing. It was emotionally exhausting and at the same time I couldn’t stop. I was being pulled from the core of my being to do this.
All I could do was continue to show up, writing the words as they spilled out of me, climbing my mountain step by step.
xoxo
Love this analogy Audrey. You are almost to the top of the book writing mountain. Then you’ll be able to look out over the beautiful landscape and know that you are helping to change the lives of others everywhere. That’s worth the hike up. So excited to read it!