Author Archives: adventurerliberated

“Let everything happen to you: Beauty and terror.  Just keep going.  No feeling is final.”  [Rainer Maria Rilke] To those who might be struggling simply because it’s Monday.  And to those who might be having a particularly hard start of the week or rough day.  And to my friends who are reading me and knowContinue reading ““No feeling is final””

5:00am. Arys’s alarm clock goes off. No option of snoozing it: Arys turns off the alarm and gets up in the dark. They shiver: it’s chilly. They reach for their running shorts, sports bra and technical running hoodie that they had already left ready the night before, to make things quicker on this early SaturdayContinue reading “Another lovely Saturday!”

“Stay grounded, baby, stay grounded”.  I repeat this sentence to myself often lately.  There are days I feel as grounded as an old, wise oak tree — so grounded I’m amazed at myself.  And then there are days when I feel like the tiniest, lightest twig carried all over the place by the scary powerfulContinue reading ““To-do” lists”

One of the aspects I like the most about the yoga class I often attend on Wednesday evening is the teacher’s style: her dry humor, her attention to details, the fact that she gently helps or corrects us in our poses while never losing the capacity to make us smile or laugh even in theContinue reading ““Your presence matters””

… And this weekend, there’s a particular “thank you” that I’d like to say to my artist&swimmer friend.  Thank you for the lovely Saturday afternoon we spent together; for the books you gave me; for listening to me and sharing your own feelings and experiences with me.  And thank you also for naming “it”: PTSD.Continue reading “Lets’ name it: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”

There’s this song by Bruce Springsteen, “The Wrestler”, with a refrain that often comes into my mind  “…  I always leave with less than I had before  …” But it comes to my mind by contrast, i.e. it comes to my mind when I actually feel the opposite, that “I leave with more than IContinue reading “Thank you”

Rebuilding. That’s how it feels to me at the moment. Almost from scratch but with a heap of gained experience — or rather, it’s up to me to choose what I want to keep and what I want to shed for this rebuilding process.  Scary. But also full of opportunities.

OMG, it just dawned on me why that clarifying conversation with the boulderer two weeks ago brought me such a mix of relief and grief (and maybe more grief that I had been expecting)! It’s because the closure with that specific person actually for me was the letting go and leaving behind of so muchContinue reading

Sometimes one same situation can bring me such different emotions, depending on the moment, on how I’m processing it or what phase I’m in.  In the past two weeks I’ve often been feeling that relief and sadness can be the two sides of the same coin for me.  Two weeks ago, all I was feelingContinue reading “Two sides of the same coin”

I’ve met someone I like in a way that is very different from anyone I’ve ever liked before (or like at the moment).  We met within one of the groups of climbing buddies and have climbed together three times in the past few weeks, twice with other persons from the same climbing group and onceContinue reading