“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” – C.S. Lewis
When I trekked to Everest Base Camp in 2001, I spent 15 days at or above 10,000 feet. In those days, my body produced more red blood cells to try to make up for the lack of the oxygen in the air. When I returned to sea level everything felt so much easier because of my body’s improved ability to deliver oxygen. Walking was like floating over the ground. Climbing a hill seemed like a mild little bump in my stride. My hardest workout felt like I could do it twice.
Two things happened this weekend that made me think we are going to experience a post-pandemic boost in the same way. First my mom’s retirement community has started allowed children to visit again. They have to be masked and go right up to my mom’s apartment but we can go spend time with her as a family again! The second thing is that our neighborhood community center is hosting food trucks in the parking lots on Friday nights so we have a little bit of community gathering outside again.
After the lockdown for 16 months, these things make life just feel easier. Although the pandemic has affected us all differently, I think it’s fair to say that we’ve all been impacted in one way or another. All the things we’ve done to cope have been challenging – we’ve adopted new technology, grieved the way life used to be, changed our patterns for shopping, eating out, going to school and work, lost jobs or found new ones, meditated, prayed and showed up differently. So I celebrate the moments when we all get that boost where life feels like it’s a piece of cake.
Of course getting to Everest base camp and gaining that acclimatization isn’t easy. On our trip, two women turned back on the second day and on the fifth day, Bill from Michigan got sick and had to stay at a local clinic until we picked him up on our way down. The day before we trekked into base camp, several of us were to feel well enough to climb Kala Patar, an 18,200 feet peak with great views of Mt. Everest but there were a couple of folks with headaches so thunderous they didn’t want to leave their tents. And so it is with the pandemic, I grieve for those that didn’t make it, thank the Universe that we are still here and enjoy the moments where everything feels easy!
Surprised By Joy 