Life Update - Still Here!

It has been a little while since my last update from Nepal, and in a lot of ways, I feel like I am still finding my way home.

Nepal was an incredible experience, but it was also an intense one. I came home carrying more than photographs and stories. My body was tired, my routine had been completely disrupted, and mentally I needed some time to process everything that had happened. There was a part of me that expected to land back in Orlando, unpack my bags, get some sleep and simply return to normal.

It turns out that "normal" takes a little longer after an experience like that.

Recovery has been gradual. I have been paying more attention to what my body needs, giving myself permission to slow down when I need to, and beginning to work my way back toward the routines that make me feel like myself. There is still plenty of work to do, but I am starting to feel that familiar momentum returning.

What has surprised me most, though, is how much of the recovery has had nothing to do with the physical side of things.

Nepal left me thinking quite a bit about spirituality, although probably not in the traditional sense of the word. I don't think I came home with any grand answers about the universe. If anything, I came home more comfortable with not having them.

There is something incredibly humbling about standing among mountains that have existed for millions of years, surrounded by a culture and landscape so different from your own. It has a way of putting your worries, ambitions and even your sense of importance into perspective.

Since returning home, I have found myself thinking less about searching for some enormous life-changing revelation and more about recognizing the small moments of peace that already exist around me.

Sometimes peace isn't something waiting for us at the end of a trail halfway around the world. Sometimes it is something we learn to notice in the middle of an otherwise ordinary Tuesday.

That has probably been the biggest shift for me lately. I still love adventure. I still want to see strange places, climb mountains and occasionally do things that make people question my decision-making skills. But I don't want adventure to be the only place where I feel alive.

I want to build a life I don't constantly feel the need to escape from.

Part of that has meant becoming more intentional about community as well. Recently, I have found some comfort in joining the Urban Ashram here in Orlando. After spending so much time exploring things independently, there is something grounding about having a place where I can show up, connect with other people and continue exploring mindfulness and spirituality without feeling like I need to have everything figured out.

Community has been something I have probably underestimated in the past. I am independent by nature, and I am very comfortable doing things on my own, but independence and isolation are not the same thing. I am beginning to understand that there is value in intentionally creating spaces where we can simply be around other people who are also trying to live a little more thoughtfully.

And, of course, another adventure is already on the horizon.

In October, I am heading west to Colorado, where Denver will become my home base for a week of exploring Rocky Mountain National Park, Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak and Red Rocks, along with some slightly less strenuous adventures at Meow Wolf, the Denver Zoo and, naturally, Casa Bonita.

There isn't the same pressure to prove anything. I am not looking at this trip as redemption or as an opportunity to make up for something I didn't accomplish in the Himalayas. I would love to spend some time back at altitude and maybe even attempt a 14,000-foot peak while I am there, but the summit isn't really the point.

I am recovering. I am rebuilding routines. I am thinking more about what spirituality means to me. I am learning to appreciate ordinary moments instead of constantly chasing extraordinary ones. I am finding community in unexpected places.

I think I am realizing that life doesn't really happen between adventures, it is the adventure too.