The Resilience of Wild People and Places
During this most recent backpacking trip through the Pasayten Wilderness I thought about resilience a lot. Why? Because it was hard and I found myself in that familiar state of anger/frustration that, when coupled with physical discomfort and only one way out (forward), can put you in a pretty foul mood. It’s a joke of my husband and mine that our friends don’t understand why we love backpacking so much considering all the stories of painful blisters and black flies we’ve told. I think resilience is the reason. The combination of the difficult and wonderful makes for a more interesting time. More than that, it makes for an experience that feels more...rich. I think of resilience as the ability to be in a foul mood or with discomfort without letting it take over. In other words the ability to step outside the emotional jumble, if only for a moment, and appreciate the intensity and your ability to weather it. While backpacking it looks like having a real crappy morning...
