Thanks to Peter Berkey for this photo, taken in early summer last year when we hiked up to the Whitewater col. I used my ice axe that day mostly to slow myself down on this steep slope – much steeper than it looks in the photo.

It was a glorious day – and strenuous I might add.

I like this feeling I get from the pic – this being alone in the white expanse of the mountains. It recalls the hikes and treks I’ve done on my own, most recently in Switzerland last August – that place of being self-reliant, of not having anyone but myself to answer to. But there’s another feeling that comes with that solitude – a sort of peace – of being part of something else – of boundaries melting – of just being and not thinking.

I like this photo because I am just a small being in this huge expanse – a speck in the cosmos – but still whole – and just walking without fear or apprehension or tension. I remember this walk – this part of the hike – the joy of having accomplished the goal and the quiet peace of simply walking back.

This is a feeling I want to carry with me throughout every day. I don’t want to get caught up in impatience, waiting for the house to sell so that I can move on. There are times I feel stuck. I have to remind myself that I am not stuck – every minute and every hour, I am moving – maybe not in a  way that feels familiar to me, but I am moving forward. And perhaps I don’t quite know what tomorrow will bring, but it will bring change and that is a good thing.

Sometimes movement is simply one footstep at a time and one day at a time.