Things aren’t always what they seem.
Cooking for people, feeding them, is often an expression of love while random, out of control eating can signal boredom or angst. Ten year old boys might signal their “appreciation” for a member of the opposite gender by pulling her pig-tails or shooting spit balls. Poison dart frogs have appealing brilliant colors that ultimately signal their toxicity. One might shop or clean or exercise when frustrated, a way to blow off steam. All of these things have a dual personality - appearing to be one thing, one way but also encompassing another.
Climbing Mt. Washington (“Home of the World’s Weather”) isn’t just about climbing Mt. Washington. For Ron and I it’s an opportunity to get to know one another again after spending a majority of the last 15-months living on opposite coasts, several time zones apart. It’s time spent doing something we both enjoy, together. It’s an exercise in trust. These climbs are away to dig ourselves out of a rut, a 15-year rut. It’s pushing us out of our comfort zones and forcing us to explore our drives and desires as well as explore other possibilities, for us personally, as a family, and for our hiking and climbing.
We’ve now spent many years together, growing apart. We’ve developed different interests, read different books, participated in different hobbies, and acquired many different friends. As of the end of 2008, we spent a majority of time living on in different time zones – and time zones are a relationships worst enemy. That 11:30 pm call (when it's only 8:30 pm on the other end of the phone) is so much more than just a call. It is the companionship and the connectedness. It is the meat and bones of a relationship with the absence of warmth, smiles, smells, touches and all the wonders of non-verbal communication. But is so important too.
It’s time for a change; a change of scenery and a change of attitude.
These 12 months of climbing - really, it's therapy but cooler.
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