Ballet and Hiking

The challenging week continues... On Wednesday I caught a cold, but went on a 1 hour 45 minute hike and then ran for 15 minutes. Today I stayed in the whole day with a sore throat. I wonder if my body sabotages me? I still have 3 days to finish my training routine for this week and I am setting my intention to do so no matter what.

Today I watched "The Black Swan" and it reminded me of how much I wanted to be a ballerina when I was 9-11 years old. My Mom brought me a pair of points and I practised dancing in them day and night. I remember I felt it in my heart that I could make it in the ballet world. I knew that my body would be able to adjust to everything it needed to in order to perform its best. I was ready to suffer, to hurt in my muscles and to live on the verge of hunger only to be able to dance on points... Obviously, my parents wanted a better fate for me and never took me to the ballet school.

For some reason I saw a parallel line between dancing ballet and hiking. Ballet is all about points, at least for me. It's a certain feeling in your feet, when you point your toes which makes you feel as if you are about to take off and fly. It's as if you are trying to eliminate your feet, get rid of them, so that you can have an illusion of a flight, manifested in ethereal and graceful body movements. Yet, feet are the most important element in this dance. They are all that supports you in this awkward toe-pointed position.

In my preparation for Kilimanjaro I realized that it's all about hiking boots. If you don't have the right ones and they fail to support your feet, your chances to get to the top are greately minimized. It is important that your toes do not touch the boot when going downhill, otherwise you might end up hurting really badly. Your heels shouldn't lift up too much, because it can cause blisters. Hiking in hiking boots feels to me like a dance, though a very grounding, earthly dance. You completely rely on your feet, you barely care how you look. You just make steps and move up and down hills along the trajectory of a chosen trail...

When I think about Kilimanjaro and imagine what music I identify it with, Chopin always comes to my mind. Particularly the Nocturne, Lento con gran espressione, Op.post. in C sharp minor. Simply because it is my favorite Nocturne and it reminds me of falling snow. The idea of climbing Kilimanjaro came to me 2 years ago when I was going through a very emotionally challenging time in my life. It was revealed through morning pages I wrote doing "The Artist's Way". That particular day I was contemplating about snow and how much I miss it here in Los Angeles. Strangely enough, instead of driving for a couple of hours to a place where there is plenty of snow or merely going to the east coast or at least to Russia, I imagined the snow of Kilimanjaro. The snow which is so hard to reach and which can be completely gone by 2030...

Points, hiking boots, Chopin, snow - I don't even know what I am talking about or what I am trying to explain to myself. I guess that if I am lucky enough to get to the summit, Uhuru Peak or the Peak of Freedom, and stand firmly on my feet in hiking boots, I will close my eyes and let the snow fall on my face. While it will be slowly melting and mixing up with my tears of happiness, I will be able to hear my favorite Nocturne. And at that ethereal moment I will feel that my feet are in points and I can take off and fly on the wings of my freedom. My emotional freedom of being self-reliant, self-supportive, self-encouraging and trusting in myself. Trusting that anything I imagine can become real. I can make it miraculously happen if I take a step at a time.