"After The Fall....."

Quite some time has passed now since that very trying event, during a challenging season of climbing at the very edge of our abilities. The fall surprisingly came later on, after we were both felling practiced and confident. Yet it was what unfolded after those moments that was to amaze both of us so much...

Any climber who falls in this way knows how terrifying it is, whatever the distance or exposure happens to be. Sometimes our gear reflects the forces that have come to the fore in those moments, like the helmet we saved, battered as it was after doing its job so well. This helmet was now a symbol too of those other forces, those other elements we each can bring forth after such adversity. Forces that become apparent when you look past the event, beyond the injuries, and then gaze more closely at the recovery and the regaining of healthy ground for the shaken self... Distinctly powerful proof yet again of the Outward Bound wisdom of there being so much more within us than we may ever first realize...

Those healing challenges can be so many - of muscle, bone, memory, confidence, and in other internal elements and paths that may need to be set out upon. There will surely be further awakenings too, of the ways and means of newer needed inspirations and why we would want to return and keep going in our chosen directions out there...

When I looked up at the back of the person before me, as they lead their way up that trail, to our next climbing adventure so many seasons later - I thought of the anxieties and fears from back then, no longer present. Of how the real person inside has emerged, then grown past those trials, and now has become so much more... Such is the essence of an adventurous spirit, once fallen, now back up here again... Truly one of our greatest challenges...

So I painted a very special Summit Stone for my friend, having mixed in some particles of leaves and rock dust from where it had all happened. Then once upon our elusive summit, I passed the inspiration back once more, hopefully as it was so powerfully shared with me.

One of my greatest challenges - to be the friend, my friend needed me to be, throughout this long journey, and then in returning to this high point in time, place, and of feeling...

DSD