Day 3,953

One of my all time favorite books is Life Lived Wild by Rick Ridgeway. The book is his memoir of a life spent at the edge of the map, where adventure, friendship, loss, and conservation become inseparable. I was fortunate to find a used copy of his book online with an inscription he wrote about his signature:

That one sentence says it all, doesn’t it? We need to have a summit to shoot for, it is the start of the dream, the reason we start the journey. But it is so much more important to remember that the actual goal is to live the life that could lead towards the summit. We never know what may happen, what challenges we may face. If we spend the entire time thinking that it is only the summit that will bring joy we’re not only crushed if we don’t make it, but we’ve lost so much of our life looking fifteen miles and 5,000 feet ahead rather than savoring the exquisite wildflowers along the path, the time spent working towards the summit with our loved ones, the noble pursuit of working hard to be a better person than we were the day before.

If we choose the right summit each footstep we take should bring us joy (which, remember, is quite often not the same as comfort), each step forward an expression of living the life that could lead us to the summit, each step taken intentionally and in a deep state of presence.

Thanks!!!