Wholistic Fitness

 What Is It That Makes You Feel Strong?

Sit with it for a while…

In the Tradition of Wholistic Fitness®?

Easy Answer:  Working on our weaknesses make us stronger…  

 

 

“Daddy?  On our hike today?  I don’t want to take my new shoes on any namby-pamby trail…i want a super steep trail, okay?”

 

 

ilg is going to tell you s(om)ething…

i think you’re strong because you are weak (in certain areas)…as are we all…

today,  after my mountain bike ride which was danced upon a heaven sent carpet of the most preciously tacky single track i was lucky enough to look forward to a Daddy and Dewa hike.  Earlier in the morning i took Dewa to our little town’s annual spring Gardenswartz (an iconic outdoor shop here) sale at the Fairgrounds which offers fantastic deals on summer style athletic/outdoor gear for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday/understand this much:  i got the hole shot at this sale after surviving a single parent sleepover with Dewa and her BFF who turned 7 years-old during the sleepover.  (Yup, we partied hard we did, but what happens at the River H(om)e?  Stays at the River H(om)e…let’s just say we did a LOT of dancing during which i nearly reblew my MCL which is still shaky)   We hit up the sale,  looking for anything that might fit into the measly budget of a yoga teacher attempting to raise a family in suddenly slippery slope of my own h(om)town which has become quite the Aspen of the Four Corners.

Goldstrike!  Found a pair of pink girl’s Merrell trail shoes with speed lacing for like half-price!   Dewa was beside herself and could NOT WAIT to field test them;  “Daddy?  On our hike today?  I don’t want to take my new shoes on any namby-pamby trail…i want a super steep trail, okay?”

“Baby girl?” i replied, relishing the m(om)ent of my capable-ness, “Daddy has JUST the trail for you…but it is SUPER STEEP,  only rock-climbers use it…are you SURE you want to try it with your new shoes?”  

She replied with her now hallmark answer,  “Let’s DO IT, Daddy!”  

The rest of our ‘hike’?

Can only be quasi-captured in the following few shots and captions…

Enjoy the Teaching courtesy of Rinpoche Dewachen and your ever feeble ilg…

keep working on your weakness’s…

doing so,

makes you truly strong…

trust me,

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Along our ‘hike’ we simply HAD to establish several first ascents on the local boulders along the way (the fruit never falls far from the tree, right?) 

When Dewa free-soloed up to the summit of this rock, which we christened “Shark Fin Rock” due to obvious salient geometric features inherent to this boulder,
i shouted from below, “Dewa!   I need to take a picture of you on this summit…smile and say, ‘SUMMIT!'” 

Instead?

Dewa sat down, mesmerized if not pranically intoxicated by the full blown view of Durango far beneath her rocky height perch and simply folded her hands into Anjali Mudra and instead of saying “summit” she said, “Beautiful.”

i feel soooooo dumb around my Rinpoche Daughter sooooo many times, i swear.

one day?  i’ll grow up to be like her…

Dewa:  “Let’s go touch touch it, Daddy, c’mon!”

 

Then, on another boulder we spotted this blo(om)ing Barrel Cactus…instead of choosing another route away from it?

Dewa:  “Let’s go touch touch it, Daddy, c’mon!”

Daddy:  “Okay, baby girl,” i said and then played back her own words on her,  “Let’s DO IT!” 

And so, side by side… Father and Daughter scaled the sandstone spire, determined to reach the blo(om)ing cactus…

 

 

upon reaching the precious Cactus Being, auspiciously well-rooted in the middle of the sandstone face, Dewa sighed,  “She’s soooooo beautiful!”

There, in the middle of an unknown sandstone boulder, two Human’s,  intimately connected by karma, shared a m(om)ent far beyond a Daddy/Daughter m(om)ent…we shared a timelessly understated sacredness…

an understated sacredness…

a metaphor of my own life and teachings…

which have fallen and have been felt on so few ears and hears all these years,

yet,

deeply?

like this blo(om)ing cactus upon this unknown sandstone boulder in this remote pine forest?

ilg prefers it this way…

do you?

take your kids, if you have any, hiking.

if no kids?

take your inner kid hiking.

asap.

you could be dead tomorrow.

and never find the m(om)ents which

lie understated – like WF –

within the monument of our living…

 

head bowed,

spirit vowed,

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