Don't stress the mess

Thoughts and observations on life that I'm sure have been made before, and will be made again.

Recently realizing anew that life is messy.
                                        At least GOOD life is messy.

We can have a fairly clean life, planned out, with i's dotted and t's crossed. Tempting for a semi-OCD Type-A person like myself. I'm drawn to order and neatness. An unmade bed or non-alphabetized bookcase has the potential to send me into a cleaning spree. Not a bad thing all the time, organization has it's place. However sometimes for me the spic-and-span can get in the way of real life. And is a way for me to pretend I have control over life (insert laugh here). And prevents me from taking risks.

Organized life is safe. Planning every step feels secure. Only doing what I'm good at limits that nagging sense of failure. Unknown can be frightening. Change difficult to get used to. Friendships are surely messy (anyone out there disagree with that one?). Risks are scary, failure a distinct possibility.

Do I want a safe and secure life though? Or do I want life stuffed with adventure and community! Knowing each step becomes boring. No-tolerance policy for mess negates true friendship. Taking a chance can reap rewards beyond the imagination. Relationships put the life into living. Mistakes and missteps are amazing teachers.

So when my insides shudder at piles of moving boxes at the office, or when my head aches just thinking of dirty dishes in the sink, or when I don't get a full 8-hours of sleep that was planned I'l try to remember:

Good life is messy.
                              And scary.
                                                  And exciting.
                                                                      And fulfilling.



Take a Deep Breath and get ready for an amazing messy life.

Top of Palmer

Only 32 days and counting until Mt Rainier climb!!! And on July 16th, sometime mid-morning I should be standing on the top of the Northwest! I can only hope for weather as beautiful as today's during our snowshoe trek on Mt Hood. We traveled from Timberline to the Top of Palmer (about 2,500 feet elevation gain). Now, I'll let the photos speak for themselves. 

View from the parking lot

From Timberline

 Below photograph is at the starting line for us. Look closely and you can see a black dotted line along the left side of the mountain--that is the ski lift. We hiked up to just above the end of that line.

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View from half-way up looking down to Timberline

View from the top

Such an incredible day! I feel so lucky to live close to such beauty.

On another good note: Pediatric Associates (where I work) was able to sponsor my climb! This means I did not have to put in any funds on my own. Such a blessing!



The Tally: 
Mt Rainier                          21.5 mi      9,000 ft elevation gain
Training Hikes So Far       79 mi     29,600 ft elevation gain

Devil's Peak

Welcome back Sunshine!

Such a fantastic weekend of sunny weather here in Portland, spectacular. Amazing. Astounding. Magnificent. Did I miss any adjectives? Truly, a sunny day in the Northwest is worth all the rain. 

And I was able to absorb much sun and fun this weekend. Here's a glimpse of Portland from the Japanese Gardens yesterday:

And today another training hike near Mt Hood. If you saw my last post you heard me complaining about blisters from my new mountaineering boots. Two weeks of healing, and today had much better luck with the same boots--yea!!--and was able to fully enjoy scenic views and the camaraderie on the trail.

Daniel really ISN'T trying to hit Kris, I promise

Group 1 Studs @ the summit

Devil's Peak is a challenging trail, but seemed somewhat easier than many of our other training hikes. Maybe we're all just in better shape now! 

This trail started out steep, gaining nearly 500 feet in elevation in the first 15-20 minutes, and maintained a less-steep but steady slope the rest of the way up (reaching 5045 feet at the summit). As with many of our recent hikes the lower part of the trail was clear but we encountered snow in higher elevations, which made staying on the trail tricky at times. 

Check out these trail signs that we almost missed since they were buried in snow!

 And I love these next couple of photos because it looks like they are on some epic trek through the wilderness.

In spite of the snow it was quite warm out today. The challenge today was to keep cool, which is quite a change from the other training hikes where layers and hand-warmers took precedence.


Quick fundraising update: The deadline was Friday to have all of my funds in, thank-you to all who donated! I had some ground to make-up in order to reach the minimum, and was able to cover that myself. Still accepting donations until the climb in July (I hope to be on the July 13-16 climb). Go to my fundraising page here to learn more about Climb For Clean Air or to donate.

The Tally: 
Mt Rainier                          17 mi      9,000 ft elevation gain
Training Hikes So Far       89 mi     30,300 ft elevation gain