The Last Lesson from the Mountains

Kilimanjaro Lesson #10

If you make your backpack heavy you will not get there. It makes sense right? 

The heavier your backpack, the more energy you need to carry it which would be ok if you had sufficient recovery time, but you don't. Within a few hours, no matter of how you feel, you must get going. It is like life. Sometimes it ushers you along for months or years without a break and this is when you must make sure that you shed all the weight you can. 

If you don't, you might not make it. 

I have seen it not only on the mountain but with friends and family. They try to carry the past, other people's problems and responsibilities, while navigating the present challenges life has presented. I always believed that life is fair, to all of us. Maybe not on the short-term but it always equalises on the long run. 

People with crap families have fantastic friends. People with illnesses have families or people around who look after them. If we are poor, we have close relationships. When we have no relationships or people to love us, we have money. There is always something taken away and something given! Always, and you just must find it. Read the PS below:-) 

So, when life propels you forward, and keeping pace becomes difficult, it may be because you forgot to shed the weight meant for release. It also could be that for a while you must carry everything together, an unbearable weight because, well, you just must. In cases like that, you must know that the journey will be short so just bare it! You will not be given a heavy weight to carry for long and alone, because you wouldn't make it and that's not the goal. 

When we got stuck in Peru, up on Machu Picchu and the only way was to walk 45km back to the city I said let's go! However, up until then we had our porters carrying our duffle bags of 15kg each. I said, "I will leave it all behind, let's go." 

I knew that I had to get back to the city and I also knew I cannot carry 15+kg for 45km. It was an easy choice. Some of us struggled with that. The thought of leaving their personal stuff behind made them nervous. But there was no choice. This is life, sometimes we have no choice so make the heartbreaking decision and shed the weight otherwise you won't be able to move on. 

I learned that lesson three times already; Everest, Machu Picchu and Kilimanjaro. People with their big backpack struggled and some eventually handed over their weight to the guides to be able to continue. Life is not that kind, sometimes it won't carry your stuff so what happens then?

The lesson is clear: walk lightly whenever possible to reach your destination. Life may throw challenges and burdens our way, but by shedding unnecessary weight, you increase your chances of making it through the journey successfully. 

PS: Once a friend of mine said to me "Friends are god's apology for giving you crap parents." He had no parents nor siblings but 100s of friends. He was never alone. 

You must see the good in life because they make you light.