Life.
When we look back at the things the
past year has brought us, all of the incredible characters we’ve met, all of
the places the winds have carried us to (and all of the winds themselves that
almost tossed us off of ridgelines & bridges…), all of the incredible
moments that we simply would not have been physically able to witness from the
confines of “normal” and we realize that yes, the crazy adventures are worth it.
It’s been awhile since I’ve written.
It was a few countries ago that I was last on here. But here’s what’s been
rolling around in my head (and probably yours too, even if you’re not willing to
admit it):
Buy a plane ticket that costs a
good portion of your income.
Make it a one way.
Make sure it takes you somewhere
you’ve wanted to go so badly your whole life that tears well up when you finally
set eyes on it.
Then buy another that starts in an
airport under construction and lands at one in the mountains with a runway roughly
the length of a football field.
Hold your breath as the plane on
that particular leg of the journey takes off and lands.
Trudge up to an elevation that give
you headaches and makes you want to puke. Keep walking on anyway.
Wonder about all the people who
have walked the trail before you.
Start a silent dance party in the
middle of a mountain memorial with a group of travelers you’ve never met as you
catch your breath from a steep climb.
Slide down a rock with a couple kids you just met. And unabashedly love it.
Watch someone get chased by a
monkey.
Then unknowingly cross an invisible line and
find yourself getting slapped by that same monkey.
Laugh about it.
Wander the dirt streets beneath a
web of tangled powerlines and have faith you will find your way back. Somehow.
Barter with someone who doesn’t
speak your language. Get egregiously ripped off (by local standards). Try to barter again five minutes later and three vendors down.
Eat so much rice, SO much rice that you
balk at the thought of facing it for months afterwards.
Discover how good orange
flavored oreos taste in comparison.
If you can't bring yourself to eat yak, at the very least pet one.
Take a busride that makes you put
your seatbelt on not because of the law, but because the road is rough enough
that you might just actually fall out of your seat if you don’t.
Ride in a dugout canoe and realize
it has a leak in it right as it sidles up to a crocodile. The meat-eating kind.
Hop off the dugout with a local and
get a quick two-second stampede away from a one-horned, feisty rhino with a
reputation for picking a fight.
Make sure you have an escape plan
for if he decides to charge you.
Even if your “escape plan” turns
out to be to jumping into that crocodile filled river two feet back and five
feet down from where you currently stand.
Walk down the road next to an elephant.
Get lost in a misty jungle
weathered by monsoons and stumble upon tiger prints right next to rhino prints
right next to sloth bear prints.
Jump out of bed in the middle of
the night to watch a rhino eat outside your thatched roof mud hut. Listen to
them rip grass from the ground and foliage from a tree.
Watch the shapes of elephants
emerge from the morning mist.
Unlock your heart, offer it up, and
let yourself experience what it means to be vulnerable in the presence of
someone who is more than absolutely worth it.
Spend a birthday, be it yours or
theirs, with your best friend somewhere wild and remote.
Fight for what you want. Stick to
your guns.
Whatever you do, wherever you find yourself: throw yourself into it, don’t give up, soak each experience up for all it’s worth.
Make it count.
Go.
I dare you.
