PostAWeek 11: Hanging on Belay – The Mile High Diaries, Page
3
By David “5,280 Feet”
Dysart
The Epic Trilogy draws to a
close...
The cold was bitter in my mouth.
The strain pushed my resolve, but I pushed from the agony. I’ve left routes
that had both succumb to my ability and beaten my perseverance as I struggled.
I look back on my journey, steps far too numerous to
remember, but far too engrained to forget.
I started with 5,280 feet above my
head. Soon, I had dashed that in half. Then halved again. Over and over again,
the climbs fell before my feet as the ten weeks of this quarter has passed.
Challengers had joined me along my journey. They just as often overtook my
position as they fell behind, each one of them pushing me to my best, each one of
them, traveling their path, their journey of discovery on the wall.
As I look back, a mile passed so
fast, and with it, another 10 weeks of life, friends, and... well, everything.
I’ve met new faces, been comforted by old ones, and look forward to THAT
journey rekindling next quarter.
The cold was bitter in my mouth. The strain pushed my
resolve, but I pushed from the agony.
The Mile-High Challenge has a way
of bringing people together on a shared journey. It’s often easy to get lost in
our own lives, that it’s not until one of the paths that we share with others
is written in ink and shown to us that we realize we’re all here on this planet
together, fighting tooth, nail, and jug for the same thing in life: Better. We
are all on the mountain of life, striving to leave the shadows of our past
behind while trying to conquer the life we’re given. But, guess what. Everyone
else is doing that. Watch them and their journey. They might just be doing
something more clever than you are.
We’re all here on this planet together, fighting tooth,
nail, and jug for the same thing in life: Better.
But beyond that, we climb for the
same summit as those around us. Why exclude them when we have the same climb
ahead of us? And forget not the person cast in your shadow belaying you,
keeping you safe as you fight for every foot. Without them to catch you, you
are left with nothing except the journey you fell from.
But that’s enough philosophizing!
On February 11th, I set forth to question my resolve in words. I did
not know if I could achieve this feat before me, to conquer this mile in 10
short weeks for the third time in as many years. I doubted myself, my ability,
and my time, but still, I set out on the excursion of my medal yet again. I’ve
climbed vigorously. I’ve climbed throughout the night. I’ve even had a perfect
week of climbing (high climbed everyday for five days 5!). Every climb brought
me closer to that question I pressed upon myself. Every 34 feet cracked my
doubt further until the last run of holds laid over me.
Every climb brought me closer to that question I pressed
upon myself. Every 34 feet cracked my doubt further until the last run of holds
laid over me.
The slap at the top shattered my
inability. It wore away my questioning. My resolve left, washed and tired, but
successful. It was over, and I had regained my connection with the wall. In my
old Bloggaday I kept a running total of victories I had on the wall (and visa
versa), but I have since lost count. What this mile has taught me was that neither
of us had ever beaten each other, it was never a competition. It was a means of
growth. Victory and loss were the same. Sure I felt better about one over the
other, but each one, and each climb was nothing more than a step to where I am
today. I look back on my journey, steps far too numerous to remember, but far
too engrained to forget.
The Mile-High Diaries
David Dysart
March 22, 2013
Listening to
Justified
Twitter Tag
Won’t you help me count the steps of my journey? Only on the
Postaweek http://tiny.cc/PostAWeek11
Going faster than a
“Reply All” email, websites like mine will surely go your way
http://twitter.com/daviddysart All in
all, it’s just another post in the feed
http://daviddysart.tumblr.com/ I’m
gonna post some tumblrs
http://hangingonbelay.blogspot.com/
Got you stuck on my belay, on my belay like a figure 8
http://daviddysart.blogspot.com/
Posts become as vapid as a blogger out in Starbucks
http://tiny.cc/Facebook_DavidDysart
This site has got to be the most pretentious thing
New to the Bloggaday?
These are the essential posts to see
158 – Boxer V Brief –
Short, concise joke machine and a DYNAMIC ENTRANCE! to my favorite Bloggadays
of the Second Trigaday
159 – A Phthalates-filled
Sbarro Breadstick – This was just a funny Bloggaday despite the essence being
something no one will get unless the look up what a phthalate is
174 – FNtCCA,aToTbDD–
While I think it’s clear I rarely EDIT the Bloggaday, this train-of-thought
post shows how much I have to FILTER it…
183 – SotW 13 – This one
had it all. Pretty much every bit that’s been a major player in the SotW made
its way into this one, so it’s a good one to try.
134 – SotW 5 – This
particular Song of the Week featured the characters a bit truer to their
original concept. After a while, I started liking Tom too much and changed him
a bit which caused changes to Chuck.
227 – PWND: TSHBRotCCPS pt16
was some solid fiction content. Plus, that was probably some of the finest
Final Thought I’ve ever thought up.
Allons-y
.JPG)
.JPG)