We decided to alter Saturday and Sundays so different folks
could come out. This time Carol Gary, a huge supporter, came out to check it out.
And Doug made it out finally since he always play softball on Sundays. Tina,
Tim and their two awesome friends Brett and Kristen were super helpful since we
had less folks. It was nice that Toqua came out too even though none of the
other firefighters could make a Saturday. The Fire Fighters Association also
sent a check for $1000 which was incredibly generous!
We always gather in the parking lot while we are getting
ready and inevitably someone always walks by and recognizes us and our cause.
Today was no different. We had several folks stop and wish us luck and even one
lovely gal who met us and heard the story on the first training hike. Now we
see her all the time. I finally just told Leslie to go ahead and just join us. We
hope she does.
Today’s lesson on the trail for me was self-compassion. It
was tougher today for me as well as Anthony. For some reason even though we did
the same hike and the same miles I huffed and puffed up the last part of the switchbacks.
I was dizzy and didn’t feel very good when I hit the top. I had my usual orange
slices to hand out for everyone but I had to sit down. My first reaction was to
really beat myself up as to why I was having such a tough day, how am I going
to keep up in the canyon, etc… But I’ve been getting so much better at
self-compassion. It’s a tough one for me. I’ve always been very driven and I
usually never get where I’m going without a good lashing. Now I’m getting to
a place in my life where that just doesn’t work anymore. I can’t tolerate me being
mean to me anymore. Getting through this journey with my boys, I have learned
that I can share all the great philosophy I want, but my boys seeing me treat myself
with kindness, compassion and forgiveness will teach them how to treat
themselves and others. So I just accepted where I was today and moved through it
nice and quickly and had an awesome hike down.
Anthony was also tired today. Very grumpy teen ‘tude! Deeders
brought sheepskin padding for the shoulder straps the guys made him so he was
more comfortable and Dad and Deeders bought him his own camelback that goes
around his waist. We had to get him up to stretch three times as opposed to the
usual one. After the hike, he requested I stretch him out really well and give
him motrin. That’s a first. It was a beautiful opportunity to see that everyone
on the trail, no matter the level of fitness or reason for being there always
puts Anthony first. Now we just have to get AC to request Tim to slow down. Not
for Anthony (he’s probably telling him to go faster) but for the rest of us! He
and Tina are determined to get us all into Canyon shape. Even though we have
two amazing EMT’s on the trip with us for Anthony, I think we all are secretly
a little comforted.
Next week we will start to work on logistics. We have so
much to figure out! Thank goodness we have a ton of talent in almost every area
imaginable as well as a group of people that really understand what it means to
truly be part of a team.
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