The Mountains are My Church...

I came accross a quote in last month's Urban Climber magazine: "The mountains are my church, and climbing is my way to worship," and I was called to reflect on my own path: "the mountains and deserts are my church and biking is my way to worship.

There is just something spiritual about being in the wilderness where all thoughts are stilled, where all responsibilities are a thing of the past, where you're left trembling with fear from what you've crossed and what is still yet to come, and where every mundane aspect of life is washed away with dirt and blood. Shambhala.

Choose Your Mountain: Birthday Challenge and other 2009 goals

Over the last few years the one thing that I came to understand is that life is just too damn short. Our culture demands that we find our niche in the workplace and work there until our balls fall off (Reality Bites). Well...I never found my niche. I thought that there was just something out there that I was missing or that there was something wrong with me. Eventually I read a few books (Ishmael and Summit Strategies) and I came to the conclusion that work is secondary to living, a means that I put up with to achieve my goals, desires.

Since my epiphany, I started creating a goal list each year to highlight what I want from life (if it is never written down, it would never get done). So to begin my blogging career, I am highlighting my goals, my "mountains" for 2009.

My first goal is to complete a birthday challenge. This will be my first one, so we will see what happens. For my 30th birthday I have 30 hours to mountain bike 30 miles, climb 30 routes at the local climbing gym, drink 3 beers every 10 hours, and play 30 matches of Call of Duty.

Some other goals for this year are: return to Moab, Utah for a mountain bike trip; mountain bike at a ski resort; take a multiday back packing trip; visit a new national park; visit 5 new mountain bike trails; learn to swim; learn to set gear for climbing outdoors; fix up a commie to commute around town more; recycle more consistently; get a lotus tattoo with Courtney; and begin a photo journal on this site to track my shit.

Like I said my life is just too damn short. The above goals are set up to help me "live vertically" and hopefully will encourage you to do the same. We will see how is goes...........