The journey.

This is me, beginning a journey of a thousand miles with a single step, literally and figuratively.

I was in my mid 30’s when this picture was taken, just setting off on a journey through the Indian Himalayas.

Before marriage and motherhood, I was either over-working or over-adventuring. If I wasn’t working, I made sure to explore the world and seek out new adventures. Remember my mantra “curiosity is my currency, learning is my lifeblood?” Well, that has been a constant all my life and is what drives my love for adventure, my need to experience, and my desire for positive change.

When I planned this particular trip, I was still single and thus joined up with a cadre of strangers — fellow adventurers that all came together for the same purpose — to encounter new cultures, to breathe fresh mountain air, to understand our place in this world beneath the awe-inspiring mountains, and to experience a small glimpse of what it would be like to live at 17,000 ft.

We started in the Pindari River Valley in a town called Dhakuri and made our way to “zero point” then out through Supi. The Himalayas stretch a length of 1400 miles beginning in Pakistan, continuing on through India, then into Nepal. Most people think of Everest when they picture the Himalayas but, in my humble opinion, this stretch of Himalayas in India with its up close views of Nanda Devi, Nanda Kot, and Changuch, literally takes the breath away.

It is at zero-point where the trail ends and those magnificent mountains rise upwards. It is at zero-point, at 17,000 ft of thin cold air where we met Babaji, a spiritual seeker who has lived there by himself since 1989. In the winter when the temperatures drop to -50 he survives in his cabin via an airpipe and he cannot use gases or fuels because it is too cold for them to ignite. He felt a calling to be right there in this spiritual place, guarded by sacred mountains, when he was only 14 years old and has been there since. Each day he prays to the Goddess Nanda Devi for her protection and guidance beneath the massive strength of these mountains.

It was at zero-point where I too was moved by the power of these mountains. I felt it deep in my bones (and on the tip of my nose) and while a “calling” did not come to me in the way it came to Babaji, I knew in that moment that someday I would bring value to others. That someday the fullness of my life experiences would come together in a way that would make sense and that my path was, in fact, my very own. That I was my own pilot in this journey.

Fast forward a few years and I got married and became a mother. Now most of us know the famous Chinese Philosopher , Lao Tze is responsible for the phrase “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. But, I’m pretty sure if he hadn’t coined this phrase, then a pregnant mother would have been its originator, for it is on that delivery table that our second journey begins.

Little do we know when we launch into the journey of motherhood that we will be starting a new adventure, one that is certainly not as sexy or interesting as trekking through the Indian Himalayas or tanning on the beaches of the French Riviera, but a journey full of breathless moments, cultural discovery in its own right, and the opportunity to experience life at its highest peaks and lowest valleys. In becoming a mother, our place in this world becomes firmly planted, grounded by the heartbeat of another.

Despite all that we are outside of motherhood and all of life’s experiences that brought us to this moment, we begin to forget the parts of us that make us interesting. We stop believing in the adventures, we devalue the early parts of our life that made us who we are and brought us to the very point of becoming a mother. We push our own dreams aside for others. We give away all of ourselves to these little humans.

Yes, being a mother is a great gift, our children are a gift. But, we must never forget that we too are a gift. We become so wrapped up in the development of our children that we and others forget that we are actually interesting people, that we have done interesting things, that our life experiences extend well beyond diapering, homework helper, and cleaner of messes. We forget that we bring great value to this world, value that stretches well beyond what we bring to our children.

So bring forward your value. Bring forward the parts of you that are interesting. Bring forward the parts of you that make you want to goofy dance because you are so inspired by “your thing”. Bring forward the real you that might be hibernating or hiding under a rock, waiting and waiting for the right time to show yourself. Just show yourself, life is too fleeting to wait. You are valuable. You are interesting. You are meant to do great things.

We get just one life and yes indeed it is a journey. So find your zero-point where the mountains rise upwards to the clouds and where your whole being becomes immersed in their power.

This is your journey, this is your step, this is your thousand miles.

Originally published at https://www.kristirible.com on February 17, 2021.