Later I went away from the town, up into the desert hills. Took the path that was too steep and narrow for most. Set a goal in elevation gained and exceeded it.
Then I sat. Haze of Los Angeles smog to the Southeast. Chapparral, sage, all around. Small lizards. The occassional hawk flying above and helicopter flying below my little perch.
Sitting in the sun as lizards scurry by (western fence lizards, with blue on the sides of their underbellies) and insect eat salt from my sweat. One hour, two hours, three hours... the two liters of water is nearly gone, the trail down is a half-assed climb over weak sedimentary rock and shale, so you use the scrub for the stability it gives to the soil.
Run part of it, glissading in loose rock, fast but not as fast as when you were a kid. The knee twinges. It's okay. Slow walk back to the people place. It's all good.
6 comments:
:) I think I know (roughly) which path you'd have gone on...It's a nice place to have for a backyard!
When you come to Minnesota we will have to make time to hike in the State park behind my house. Late september the leaves should be changing.
Glad you finally got some time alone, challenging your body and not having to pay attention to another person.
"Took the path that was too steep and narrow for most."
I'm often lulled into thinking that same thing - kicking my ass, scrambling to the top of an impossible something - and what do I discover when I get to the top? OLD PEOPLE. Old people with walking sticks and cameras and osteoporosis, who have already climbed to the top having not even broken a sweat. Here I am, SUPPOSEDLY at the prime of my life, and I'm routinely showed up by the hiking skills of freaking elderly walkaways.
I think I'm going wait and try Ranier when I'm 80.
Been reading your blog for a while now and I bought your meditations book. What are the more useful martial arts youtube vids we should check out? A long while back, you had a post titled (I think) "the template" about how you dealt with a confrontation. The verbal description didn't really explain it for me. Can you post a explanatory vid? I also bought a dvd that featured you as a guest participant (by Mattison??). The sound quality was so poor, I had to throw it in the trash.
from nerobo123@gmail.com
I second Drew request that is actually a strong business move---video posts on your blog and youtube. You are a digital immigrant like me and our generations (technically I inhabit the generation before you--I am a damn boomer...so remember respect for your elders btw).
Seriously, people want to see you and whomever is offering services via Internet in the flesh in cyberspace. Inexpensive little camera could record a 4-5 minute clip as you hang out with the lizard et.al....and at your desk...where ever works.
I'm glad you walked slowed your pace on the way back. I don't know how to go that long without privacy......and you aren't a people lover to begin with. Only explanation that works for me is that you are a damn saint, or.........you have your wife to get you through such an extended absence of solitude. Thank God for your wife. Else we wouldn't have you to play with. You would be incorrigible without your wife. I believe you agree.
Still, I am impressed. Just don;t get too patient and good around people. Your writing would be mediocre and you'd become a soft hand.
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