HIKING LESSONS at Browns Lake Trail, COMANCHE PEAK WILDERNESS AREA
The hiking lesson begins. 5:00 AM alarm, not my house, darn, I forgot to get a glass of water. Bryan will be up in 15 so I better get to the bathroom. I really hate, yes a strong word but the right word, hate getting up early and rushing out the door—especially in a strange house and without any control. They are his friends, their car and their hike.
Packs with rain gear and jackets line the wall near garage door, mine has specifically a GoPro, turkey jerky, potato chips and a bladder with 64 oz of water. All set.
It’s an hour and half drive to the trail head, I feel good physically and am excited about hiking in a new spot. They said it was four miles to the lake and a fairly difficult trail. But, I didn’t consider the elevation.
Hiking way above my sea level.
In Texas, we sit at 600 feet above sea level, the summit today is about 11,400 feet. I can hike 10 miles in 100-degrees with no slowdown, but up that high, it turned out that I was the slow poke. The caboose. The last one, lagging behind about 100 yards and short of breath.
I started to complain to myself about myself. I showed no mercy: “Come on! You can hike faster. They are going to think you are out of shape or worse hung over. “Why is this so hard, I thought I was in better shape. “Okay Val, you need to start hiking more.” (I had already hiked 80 miles in the month of July, which didn’t count waking the dog or other steps in the garden or the lugging of 40 pound bags of manure and building my green house in the middle of the day in 100 degree temperatures.) “I need to be in better shape.” I needed to justify why I needed to stop and catch my breath. No mercy.
Show No Mercy.
Now I was treating myself the way I used to treat ‘those walkers’ on the trail when I was a runner. A merciless runner. “Get out of my way,” I would say under my breath, “this is a running track, it is a track field (granted it was a junior high school on the weekend) “a track for runners and sprinters. Not for walking slowly or worse with your child in a stroller!” I didn’t want any one or anything to slow MY pace. Even the weather. I would run, cursing the rain for slowing me down. This went on for about eight years and finally when I turned 50 I chilled a bit, I stopped running in parks and suburbs and became a trail runner. I was relentless there too but not as mean, and never mean to myself.
Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.
The rant to myself only lasted about 30 seconds. I was reading The Sermon on the Mount by Emmet Fox and the Beatitude, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy,” drifted into my consciousness. “The Law of Life is to be merciful in your thoughts and be congruent with your actions,” Fox explains. One must have thoughts of mercy and actions of mercy is my interpretation.
Fox explains further, “be free all from the weight of our condemnation and then it is possible to absolve yourself from self condemnation.” “I am sorry, I am very sorry,” I whispered to release myself.
As I softened, I stopped and looked around at “the moment”. I was on a mountain in the Comanche Peak Wilderness in Colorado. The pedometer showed we had gone 4 miles, almost to Browns Lake. A flowering meadow surrounded me. The sun was shaded by clouds, the wind was low. And a light mist introduced us to the possibility of rain. It was dreamlike.
We are all one, have mercy for one another.
And then you can receive mercy.
We get back what we give out.
So, it was not the distance, nor the terrain, or me being out of shape, it was the 11,427 foot elevation that was slowing me. I had heard of people getting sick or having headaches. I felt fine other than I had a hard time breathing.
Talking to my lungs with a loving voice, I said, “Thanks lungs for filling up and supplying me with oxygen, I take in the full breath of life, my lungs and heart pump rich, oxygenated blood throughout my entire organism. I am energetic, I am happy, I feel alive.” My view was transformed. It become more clear and colorful. And the sounds more harmonious. I was present. All senses tuned in. And I enjoyed the four-mile return trip with this new realization: It is wonderful to be the last one, the important caboose whose job it is to send positive messages up ahead that all hikers have steady feet and be balanced, enjoy stamina, feel refreshed and take in the full breath of life.
It is okay to be slow, it is okay to be the last, with no one behind I can stop when I want and no one knows.
The Hypnotic Hiker
Valerie Grimes, hypnotist is a recognized master at helping people overcome their negative belief systems, false opinions, and self-defeating habits that reside in their subconscious mind. Those blocks consistently sabotage people’s relationships, health, and opportunities for success in business and other important realms of their lives.
She has dedicated her practice to assisting individuals in removing those blocks in order to live their lives ON PURPOSE.
A 2002 graduate of the Dallas Hypnosis Training Institute, Valerie combines her skills in hypnosis with her own difficult life experiences and an understanding of human behavior gained through working with a wide variety of clients with diverse backgrounds.
In her hypnotic practice at THE FLOW CENTER, she combines centuries-old hypnotic practices with modern day neuroscience as an effective means of helping clients reach their full potential.