Eat Your Ice Cream

So what did I learn about climbing this week? Well, I retreated from Birdbrain Boulevard after ~100m of climbing, and here are my takeaways:

• Just because Steve House climbed it, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily 'in' for me. 'nuf said.
• When your number of pitches exceeds your number of gear placements, it's game-on.
• Maybe 5.8 chimneys are better climbed with hands than ice tools. Just sayin'.
• Ever gone swimming in San Juan facets? With approaches like that, who needs Crossfit?
• When you’re sick, be sick. Don’t go climbing.

So it wasn't the send-fest I'd planned for, but I kept it together through the M5 X (or 5.8, or whatever rating you want to give it), long enough to build a belay and realize I didn't have the energy to keep it up. I do look forward to returning to this choss-pile on another day. Hopefully next time someone else will put in the boot-pack.

Anyway.... After my morning, I proceeded to spend the next three days sequestered in my home - feeling like crap, getting an ab workout from coughing, and remembering a friend's words of warning 'if you are getting sick and you go climb Birdbrain, you'll be sick for a whole week.' I could hear the 'I told you so's' without even needing them spoken.

So I'm sick. What can I do now? Embrace it.

Allow me to digress for a moment... The first summer after I left my job and my life in Chicago, I traveled to Europe. It was one of those unstructured, unplanned trips that you might expect from a gap-year Aussie; but certainly not a 30-something American. On-sighting France without so much as a Lonely Planet. On 10 Euros a day.

As my trip drew to a close, I splurged and took a trip to Bordeaux, not for wine, but a little spiritual encounter. I spent time at Plum Village with Thich Nhat Hanh, or Thây. For those unfamiliar, he is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and Plum Village is the monastery/meditation center he built in France after his exile. His story is both painful and amazing; certainly worth a read, but I'll leave that for Wikipedia to explain in more detail.

To sum up my own experience with Thây's teaching, it is to be mindful of all that we do, our feelings and experiences, good or bad, big or small. All of it.

To give you a sense of the experience, there are several house rules there to provide guidance on mindful living.

1. First, nothing gets done quickly. New Yorkers, multi-taskers, and moms must need a lot of help adjusting to the pace when they arrive.
   
2. Next, there is very little talking, and none during meals. You chew. You taste your food. You swallow. With less interaction, you begin to experience all of these things that typically happen absentmindedly.
   
3. And here's another, when any bell goes off (e.g., the clock, every half-hour) everyone stops what they are doing and takes three breaths before they resume (which explains why it is so difficult getting anyone there to answer the telephone).

One of my favorite stories I heard there was about Thây explaining mindfulness to a group of children. He told them 'when you drink your tea, you should only ‘drink your tea.’' When the children responded that they didn’t drink tea, Thây quickly countered with ‘eat your ice cream.’ I understand that it was a big hit with the kiddos.

I could go on and on, but it's not the kind of thing you can easily put into words. If this gets you interested, pick up one of Thây's hundred-plus books, subscribe to their podcast, or become a fan of their Facebook group. Yep, they podcast and Facebook just like we do. Well, not just like us... I'll bet they never chat, post photos, and blog all at once.

Anyway, it was a great experience for me and I find myself remembering it as I sit here coughing up phlegm. I know. TMI.

So whatever you do today… Embrace it. Climb Birdbrain. Be Sick. Eat your Ice Cream. Breathe.