I choose a word to inspire my growth each year. This year my word is adventure. From 2019 to 2021, my word was brave. Clearly, I struggled to grow into THAT word.
Since I was a child, I dreamed of sailing. But I had been living in the grip of fear. In 2021, I wriggled painfully out of fear's grip by learning to sail a Hobie 14. I was brave in many other ways in 2021, but bravery was fun on the days I learned to sail. Pain and fun can walk hand it hand. Hikers know this, ask our feet.
I came to hiking via hunting as a child with my dad, granddad and great-granddad. I had no idea it was hiking until I went on my first hike in Amicalola Falls, Georgia with Bill. I dropped him off at the start of the Appalachian Trail, and his plan was to hike the full trail. My take away from that momentous hike: hiking is hunting without the guns.
Two weeks later, I went from hike one to hike two up Blood Mountain with gusto. At the top of Blood Mountain on a wide, flat rock overlooking the most beautiful view I had seen in my life, I decided I was going to hike the Appalachian Trail. From that moment until now, Bill and I have been rearranging the pieces of our life to accommodate this commitment. And now, we are ready for the joy and the pain of hiking the entire 2,197.4 miles of the AT.
