Broken boots & a nourished heart
I just returned from a backpacking trip on the Superior Hiking Trail with my girl (her first!) and one my dearest long-time friends and her daughter.
Despite navigating broken boots, heavy packs, the uncertainty of what our bodies can actually do, and the unsettling and quickly growing news of the Greenwood Lake Fire… our hearts and souls were so deeply nourished.
There is something that happens to me when I’m moving my body in wilderness which is hard to put into words. Something along the lines of a soul singing full body rush of vitality and vibrancy. Tears easily fill my eyes with the near overwhelm of too much beauty and life and soul and connection.
Something I’ve been wrestling with for a long time now (since I was a young girl, actually) is the question of do I truly trust that I am being held in this universe, by Spirit. My head has all kinds of ways of thinking about this and focusing on evidence that I really am not held at all. (One loud example in my life was the 2+ year freefall I experienced while grappling with postpartum depression.) And sure, some of this I’m-all-on-my-own mindset has served me. I’m incredibly self-reliant. I trust myself. I go after things. I take risks. I know how to get some serious shit done.
But here’s what I’m really REALLY getting lately is that the Truth (yes with a capital T) is that I am divinely held. We all are. What’s also true is that I forget this sometimes.
Putting myself in the arms of the wilderness is one thing that’s helping me remember what’s true.
What helps you remember?