Climbing Girnar and Gaining Confidence

I went to sleep early because the next morning I woke up at 4:30 to begin my ascent of one of the holiest pilgrim hills in Gujarat - Mount Girnar. I knew the 10,000 steps were going to be a challenge, but I welcomed it - and the sore legs that would accompany it later.

Starting my climb before dawn was really fantastic. It was so quiet and I was one of about 5 people that started that early. As the sun started to rise, the receding valley below slowly started coming into view. It was a beautiful sight to see all of Saurashtra slowly appear from the darkness. The first plateau contained a large collection of magnificently carved Jain temples. The top of the first peak (at step 5000) was the temple of Ambaji. At the end was the Guru Datt temple.

I found that my climb of Girnar paralleled life as I had experienced it in my 23 years pretty well. Somewhere far off in the distance was a goal that I wanted to reach. About 1/10th of the way there, I was already out of energy, and the hundreds of people coming past me the opposite way having already achieved that goal was a bit disheartening. Seems like life is a lot like that sometimes. But I also learned one thing about myself. I knew I was going to make it to the top. I wasn't sure if I had enough energy to do it in one trip, but making it to the top was not a matter of if - just a matter of when. And when I realized that I sure as hell wasn't leaving without having climbed to the top, suddenly my legs didn't hurt as much, I wasn't as winded, and I wasn't as miserable being passed by people moving faster than me and by people already coming back from the top. And, surprisingly, in only 2.5 hours, I had reached the very end of the path. And by hour six, I had reached the base again, having stopped for a total of 1 hour along the way. Yes, my legs were shaking, and I could barely walk, but I set my goal, went after it, and got it. Now if only I can figure out how to apply that to the rest of life...

On another note - I fly to Chennai tomorrow to travel with Jean Marc, and believe it or not, Mary's actually coming in less than a month! Unbelievable!