Next month, I will be celebrating the tenth anniversary of my thru-hike on the Appalachian Trail. Time is such a funny thing… and it astounds me that it has been ten years! The time I spent walking that path profoundly changed my life in so many ways. When I think about the actual date that I reached the summit of Katahdin, I nearly always recall how different that incredible experience could have been, had I mustered just a little more TRUST in the Universe.
By the time I reached southern Maine, it was time for me to book a return flight back to Georgia. Of course, I had no real way of knowing the exact date to call my summit date, so I calculated my average daily mileage and added a few days, you know, just in case. I also had to allow for the challenge of getting from the middle of nowhere at the northern terminus of the AT, to a plane in Bangor, and them to an airport in Georgia, which took three shuttle cars, a bus, two trains, and three airplanes. Needless to say, it was quite an alternate reality adventure after living in the woods for six months.
It had been so entirely in my nature to worry about running out of time, fretting about reaching Katahdin before winter got there and to hurry along, even when hurrying wasn’t necessary. In the last week of hiking, I was so concerned about running out of time before my departure date, I added extra miles every day, speeding up my summit date by a full day.
My summit day, September 15th, 2010, is a day I will not soon forget. Excited, but also quite sad, I could hardly sleep the night before, nestled in my sleeping bag for the last time there in Baxter State Park. The day began with a relentless cold, foggy drizzle. There were times I could hardly see the next blaze on the jutting rock far above my head. For as I learned walking into Maine, the trail was no longer a dirt path winding around trees, across creeks, or up and down mountains. It had become a climb up and down slick, steep rock faces that I sometimes wondered how the hell I even got through it all! I rejoiced as I learned to power through fears that felt quite terrifying at times.
The drizzle sometimes turned to sleet, or is it called freezing rain? The difference seems to escape me. By the time I caught sight of that rickety old signboard, matter-of-factly explaining your location at the northern terminus of the 2, 180-mile, Appalachian Trail, it was snowing, and I was a full-on hot mess. Well, more of a cold, wet, shivering mess, but who’s counting? There are no descriptive words that come close to expressing the feelings I had when I climbed up on that wooden sign for my treasured summit photo (above).
If I had followed my original plan when I purchased the return plane ticket a few short weeks earlier, I would have summited the very next day, September 16th. And because I got there sooner than I had initially planned, I got to stick around for a few days just in time to have an amazing awakening. As I slowly processed the completion of my journey, the sun dawned on September 16th. Literally. The sun came out, and it was an absolutely gorgeous, warm, dry day.
The memory of this day has settled within me as a very sacred lesson about, well, many things, but mostly the importance of trusting in DIVINE TIMING. Everything happens at the perfect time, in the perfect way, divinely orchestrated by the magic and mystery of the Universe. Surrendering to life and having trust in myself is an approach I am still culturing within and through life’s experiences.
The day after I summited, I hitchhiked into town, got a haircut, and found some clothes at a thrift store, all in the hustle-bustle of downtown Millinocket, Maine. I had no choice really because my hiking clothes literally were disintegrating right on my body by the time I finished. I kept a blog the entire time I was on the trail. I wrote about just about everything I experienced, including the joys of instant mashed potatoes and clothing repairs with duct tape. My final post was one sentence with a picture: “I CAN DO ANYTHING!”
(Here is a link to the original “blogger” site: http://rabidhiker.blogspot.com/2010/03/thursday-march-3-2010.html).
There is plenty of time. I am just in time. I have divine timing. These are a few of my favorite mantras I use when I am worried about running out of time. Time is an illusion that can trigger depression about the past and anxiety about the future. Now is all we have and all that matters. When we make Now the focus, all is well.
Namaste.
xoxCollin
