Backbone

 

We all need a strong backbone to keep our bodies upright, strong, mobile, fluid, and healthy.  We also need a strong backbone to face the challenges in our lives.  We usually think of spiritual practices as softening us, making us more tender hearted, compassionate, generous which they do.  But spiritual practice also helps us to build up the courage we need to stand up for what we need to thrive, our jobs, respect, due process, relationship.  We need backbone to speak up for ourselves in negotiations, to move our creative work out into the world, to keep our selves aware and safe in situations where others are trying to take advantage of us.  We need also need strong backbones to fight injustice in the world in large or small ways, to leave a legacy of peace and compassion not vitriol and despair.

Hiking is helping me build up the backbone that I need in my life now.  Hiking for me is both physical and spiritual in challenge and practice.  Hiking up steep mountain ridges is hard work.  I do not always make it to the top and always feel challenged.  I learn something new on each trek, like how to put on snowshoes when my fingers are freezing, where to place my walking poles on slippery rocks, what foods give me energy. My body gets stronger with each step and I learn the discipline of carrying on even in the face of fear and pain.  I build in this challenge courage to take the next step even if it is hard, even if I don't know what the outcome will be, even when I am uncomfortable.  And a long day out on the mountain calms me way down.

Spiritually, mountains are holy places.  One feels the vibration of God flowing through rivers, moving through granite, blowing through trees. The quiet of snow steadies me and brings me close to my ancestors. In the mountains, I leave behind the closed in and deceptively safe world of my house, the office, the car.  I am invited to open up into the ever changing flow of life itself.  With each step, I shed some of the armor that keeps me propped up in the day to day world.  I drop down into the vertical depth of being that is closest to soul, infused by holy spirit.  My backbone gains fluidity and agility being rooted into the deeper place. And I am able to speak up for myself with a strength and confidence that in nurtured in the holy ground of being.

Jung has said that you will know when you are on the right track when the psychie/soul is energized even after, or especially after, doing something hard.  You will be drawn to continue even when the outcome is uncertain because it gives you life and you have the courage to follow this calling.  Time in the mountains rejuvenates and inspires me, gives me the backbone I need to be strong for my life.