Me at the Colorado river, year II, November 2023
Well, I’m back.
I hiked the Canyon. We hiked the canyon. My brother and I went down the South Kaibab, across the bottom a bit, then up the Bright Angel. A popular marathon/training route. We were regularly passed by more athletic people chatting and even running.
21 miles (23 m and 53K steps total for the day).
It was warm, much warmer than last year, sunny, a gorgeous day. Still hard, (almost five Eiffel towers), but easier than last year. Imagine; having one’s surgical wounds healed makes a difference!
Then there was 20BooksVegas, the last of its kind, as next year it will take place under a different name and different management. That was, happily, super fun and rewarding, with lovely conversations and friend time that was an experience to treasure.
What I'm musing on: Writing. 2024 I’ll be writing again, and I feel like I have no ideas and a thing I want to do, an ambitious, potentially powerful thing, but no entry point and no plot to hang it on and that’s an anxious place. Eeek.
What I can’t get out of my head: The Rilke quote, still. Live the questions now. Be content with the not knowing; believe in it all working out without knowing how; accept the floating directionless uncertainty, so that you may one day live into the answers, and they will be a delight. Love the first rung of the ladder, and the moment of arriving at the destination will be glorious. “Oh, here it is. Here I am. It happened!”
“…have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language…. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
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