In the quietude of my prayer

It is Sunday and the first day after Christmas. The end of the second week of my last training month for Kilimanjaro. At the beginning of the week it was raining heavily, but I was still able to keep up with my routine and went hiking and running with an umbrella. On Wednesday three girl-friends from Moscow arrived for a visit and I still have been able to keep up with my training routine. There is nothing really extraordinary in what I am doing, but nonetheless I am happy I am able to keep my word to myself and continue training. Yay!

On Thursday during a hike my friend and I saw a rabbit. He didn't seem to be afraid at all, I even petted him and my friend took a picture of the rabbit sitting next to my hiking boots. He was very cute! The coming 2011 is the year of the Rabbit, it must be such a good luck to have encountered one in the wild:)




So, my climb is less than a month away, I have 2 more weeks of training and 3 girl-friends visiting for 3 weeks. My birthday is also coming up in 2 weeks, I will be turning 33. It all seems like a mathematical formula I have no clue how to use or what to make out of... My friends went to a museum this morning and now they are shopping. While I went back to sleep and woke up at 1 p.m. It is quiet and peaceful in my room, only the heater making some buzzing noise. I feel very relaxed and don't want to do anything, even this little entry in my blog seems very laborious to me!

I haven't been thinking much of my climb recently, I barely even talk about it, unless people ask me. I do feel it is one of the biggest things in my life I am going to do, but it is almost too overwhelming to think or speak about. Everything is sort of a matter of fact. I decided to do it, started training, paid for the tour, put together and packed all the gear, got vaccinations and pills. I am ready to go and that's it. I feel very calm about it. I also feel as if I do it all the time and already familiarized myself with the preparation routine. Not a big deal.

I barely gave this blog address to anybody. If people come across it and decide to read - it's fine with me. But I am not shouting about it, not putting it into people's faces, pretty much keeping it to myself...

I feel that my preparation for Kilimanjaro climb is like saying a prayer in preparation for some grand spiritual event. It is an intimate act of my soul, which doesn't need to be exposed or advertised. I can whisper it very quietly, and it will sound very loudly in my heart and will give me a lot of strength and faith. I will then be able to share it with others by just being fully present with them. I don't get stronger by receiving acknowledgement from others for what I do. I get stronger by supporting others in what they do or want to do. It feels like the most important spiritual practice to me.