Route Finding!

In the climbers world, "route finding" is an important skill to master. Getting "off-route" could be dangerous, and may lead one into the relative unknown. That is not entirely a 'bad' thing, as some of us gather a 'high' from entering the realm of the 'unknown'. Epics are derived of such deviations, and who knows how those will end... have to play them out and be as smart as you can! Great fuel for writing captivating bits and pieces though... after the fact! Route finding implies both the approach, the climb, and the exit! Always have to remember that once you have reached the goal you are only half way... still have to make an exit that leaves you walking & talking so that you can do it again!

Climbing has so many metaphors for the realities in life. 'Route finding' may just as well be ones day to day experience of life itself. There is always a dead wrong route, then it's a crap shoot, and something different works for different people. Who's to say what's right and what's wrong at this point? As long as your route is not obviously injurious to self or others by principal intent (holy grey area) and it is ethical and morally sound (yet another debatable can of worms)... sigh.


Have you ever been hopelessly LOST? ...either out in nature, or in life in general?? What do we do in situations like that? What is the deciding factor for those who survive and pull out of it to go on and 'live' another day, another adventure, another epic? IS there a definitive factor at all, or is it just 'chance' that enables such results... I, for one, don't count on 'chance'. 

Do you believe in yourself? ...in your abilities to survive the unexpected, to be strong and able to make good decisions under the most extreme forms of duress? Can you do something so simple as to honestly look at yourself in a mirror and say out loud, "I love you". Lets explore this a bit... take it a bit further then. How about still gazing lovingly at your reflection and adding to that, "I believe in you, I know you have what it takes to overcome, to persevere and to go the distance to survive!" The most incredible aspect of this is that you have to be brutally honest with yourself in the first place. Do it when nobody is around... this is between you and you!! Let me know what the outcome is. I know what mine is, and I also know that I am a solid survivor against all odds. I believe that I have a handle on what differentiates these people from others. I'm not saying I am invincible, for I know that one day I too will bite the big one. Until then, I also know that I am pretty damn good at route finding... in more than the Websters definition of the term... and we have not even touched on the concept of half empty vs half full! 


That's for another rant in another blog! Stay alive, stay 'high' and keep loving you!