The choice of Pondicherry for the first "Spring" hike of the year was not by accident. It was at this very place last April 29th that I had drawn a line in my sand. I weighed over 330 pounds. I was not exercising or eating properly. In short, I had given up on myself. Last April saw my wife go into the hospital, and we both had to take an honest inventory of our lives. Why had I given up ? What would it take for me to start caring, and trying, again ? Like most of our personal growth & development, it takes the ability to ask ourselves tough questions, and demand honest answers, before we ever improve. I was finally asking myself tougher questions, and waiting for my head to clear enough to try to answer them with sincerity. The 3.2 flat miles of Pondicherry, an old rail bed converted into a beautiful walk, would give me some struggles that day. I was sweating profusely, but the salty drops would only serve to inspire me. The wheezing and coughing at the end was just the clear answer I needed to feel. The only line in my head thru that entire initial hike was the gravelly voiced Bob Dylan himself, seemingly singing to me personally that day. The pic below is from that fateful day.
I saw the choice as being that simple, the answer so darn easy it was incredibly obvious. Am I Living, really Living, or just slowly Dying ?
And so it began, my journey of self improvement. I recall an old saying from The Maharishi Yogi, something to the effect of ' The greatest thing we can do for others is to improve upon one's self.' The reality is that we cannot help others without taking care of ourselves as well. I would vow to start caring about how I lived again, what I ate and how much exercise I would get. It began with short hikes, often by myself, and rarely was I not an inch or two from a heart attack. But I plodded on. And suddenly the walks became more ambitious, the peaks a little higher, the rush of adrenalin a tad greater. I was becoming hooked. And little by little the weight began to shed, my spirits lifting with every day of progress. My love of Nature had returned, my walks would start becoming learning adventures of identifying trees and plant life, of looking at paw prints, of pushing myself onto longer and more strenuous paths, not merely just completing these walks in the woods but truly Living them. Soon Sue would join me, then Sarah & Tim, and Adam when he was in from Chicago. Not only was I improving myself but for maybe the first time in my life I was inspiring others to do the same. I would get emails and phone calls from folks who were following my progressions, and perhaps because they saw someone in less than peak shape trying they saw a reason to try themselves. Those comments make me feel good, but ultimately this has been a time of selfishness for me, of focusing on myself for a bit. So when the truck pulled into Pondicherry the other day, it was a very different me that began to walk. Below I show you this year's pic, not to impress you with my leaner physique. I am more impressed with the difference in the look on my face. I am looking at someone who is now busy being born, who has no time to spend just dying. It makes every trip that I made to the gym this winter worth it.
It is with this new found optimism, this feeling that at 53 I can still enjoy Mother Nature to her fullest, that I kick off this Spring of 2014. I have many goals to accomplish, many trails to walk, many peaks to bag. All things become possible when we give ourselves a true chance. I hope that some of you might give yourselves the same chance, the opportunity to truly help others by helping yourselves. I can only speak for myself, but the past year has been truly special for me. It has given me great reasons to be excited to be alive. If you are in the neighborhood, and if the ground ever appears, I'd love to share my love of the woods with you. Until then I better be nice to Rock.
