As Gregg Braden pointed out, we are, like the imaginal cells of the emerging butterfly, standing between the breakdown of the old and the birth of the new.
That’s true for me this week as John and I take deliberate steps to divorce.
Divorce isn’t so scary and frought with shame as I had imagined. John is communicating clearly as he always has.
I do feel physically self conscious, my skin starving for touch and that satisfying caressing that assures me of the boundaries of my body. Holding hands and being held seems pretty basic to my well-being.
Regina’s Gear Lists: Summer Backpack Content
Regina’s Gear Lists
Backpack Contents for Summer
Trash compacter bag lining the pack
Pro-lite 3 Thermarest. ¾ length
Sleeping bag: Western Mountaineering 30 degree down bag
Extra clothing: fleece cap, long sleeve midweight thermal shirt, 1 pair smart wool socks, wind shirt,
Shelter: Custom homemade silnylon tarp with net tent liner (from Ray Way kit)
Backpacker’s Poncho for groundcloth and raingear
Cookset: 1qt stainless pot with lid, Pepsi can stove, 8 oz. denatured alcohol, foil windscreen, pot lifter
Food: 1-1.5 lbs per day
Wash bowl: Small zip-loc lidded bowl, small sponge, 1 oz. bottle of Dr. Bronner’s soap
Plastic trowel
Trekking poles
Water bottles: 3 liter capacity
Map, guidebook
Comfort Couch: 12”x14” piece of ensolite pad
Umbrella
Sunhat
First Aid Kit
1 oz. bottle hand lotion, 1 oz.Tecnu
2-3 plastic grocery bags for trash or bagging wet stuff
My Journey to Wholeness Day One
This is really not the first day of this journey. I’ve been laying this path for a long time, maybe my whole life, certainly for the past five years. Today is the day I acknowledged to my husband that I do intend to meet up again with a man I love being with and I will be in the process of divorce by then. I’m not as brazen and bold as this all sounds. It took several years of him wheedling me to fill in the blanks of that intention. I’ve been avoiding it, hoping that he would meet me with a creative open marriage.
Easy Sprouts for Hiking
It’s easy to have fresh food on the trail. Sprouted lentils or mung beans provide the crunch and zest of salad in a packable form.
Here’s how to do it:
1. Soak dry lentils or mung beans in a ziploc bag overnight or until they’re soft.
2. Rinse and drain off the water.
3. Give them air and rinse them a few times a day.
4. Enjoy when the first sprouts show.
For more Light T.E.N. food ideas for backpacking, email Regina at regina@forgivenesswalks.com
Sense and Nonsense
I’m excited to be sharing a couple of my favorite activities with the Trail Dames at the 2012 Summit. Www.traildamessummit.com
Here’s the clinic I’m leading bright and early on Saturday morning.
The Sense and Nonsense of Hiking a Long Distance Trail
Along with the gear and food that goes into preparing for a hike, it also helps to clear our emotional pathway as well as we get ready to go on a long distance walk. In this session you will experience two gateways to prepare your unique pathway to walk into those big dreams. Regina will guide you to awaken your five senses and then create your own Energy Color Wheel that you can take home with you. From this awakened place you will explore your life’s Big Dream and identify practical next steps to have it come true. This is a lively, heart-centered, experiential workshop!
The Sense and Nonsense of Hiking a Long Distance Trail.
Nature’s Morning Symphony
It’s morning in a Virginia mountain forest. I’m awake at 6 a.m. listening to the sounds outside my tent. Melodic trills. Whining whistles. Urgent notes increasing from loud to piercing. Hollow pecking. Raucous scolding calls. Buzzing that whooshes past my ear. One propeller in the distance. I can just barely make out the hum of cars on a highway. Sharp Percussive hits rustle leaves on the forest floor. These sounds I recognize. I greet the birds by name whose voices are familiar. I rejoice that i didn’t set up my tarp under the tree that’s dropping nuts. I drift back into half sleep.
My Umbrella: A Room with a View
I Love My Gear!
My Umbrella is a Rainy Day Room With a View
Yesterday, I walked on Cold Mountain, VA, in a cloud. Rain drizzled down and visibility was
about 20 feet. Yet, I was enjoying the walk, the view, and a visit to this magical place of beauty. As I walked, I realized that my umbrella played a big part in my ability to embrace this moment in comfort and joy.
When I first started backpacking, I thought that an umbrella would be about the dumbest thing I could bring. Wouldn’t it get caught in branches along the trail?, I thought. An umbrella is fragile and awkward! Umbrellas are for city streets, not trails! It’s just not right! An umbrella is bulky and hard to pack. My list of reasons to leave the umbrella at home was long.
Just Keep Walking
Just Keep Walking
By Regina
Walking balances me. Walking energizes me.
Walking calms me. Walking centers me.
Walking clears my mind of busy-ness.
Walking grounds me.
Walking strengthens me.
Walking renews my connection with Spirit
and opens me to the unlimited creative source of the Universe.
I am blessed by walking, in walking, through walking.
And so I walk.
I walk.
I walk.
Mingus Creek poetry
Standing next to a rushing stream in the Great Smoky Mountains Park I jotted down a poem in a “diamont” style. Nature calls me to observe her constancy amid my sanguinity.
Mingus trail stream
White rushing
Flowing unaware alluringly
Beckoning me to wilderness
Free purposeful refreshing
Journey’ s inspiration
Constancy
The Art of Living
Master in the Art of Living
The master in the art of living draws no distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion.
He hardly knows which is which.
He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves it to others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself he is always doing both.
Susan Fowler Woodring
Hiking Lifestyle is this! I’ve been on a journey for the past four years to craft a life like this! Peeling away what doesn’t fit, shaping and molding the parts of my lifestyle that DO work, and constantly learning.