Why should you climb a mountain instead of buying a dress?

"Is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves"
 

Don’t get me wrong, I love buying a dress or as a matter of fact, just pretty much anything as much as the next woman out there and for many years, I have done just that.

Shopping is addictive and honestly, completely unnecessary most of the times. I have, however, find out that takes bravery to accept that, tends to be easier to remain in the bubble of what society dictates you should do. I say to hell with that, this is not a beauty competition and that is why I have chosen to climb a mountain and therefore, to have one dress less.

Life is all about choices.

We spend years of our lives trying to figure out how to feel more complete, how to give more sense to our days, how to have a richer spirit, or to paint our aura white….you name it, basically how to win the sky while sipping cocktails down here.

Like any good city girl, I have walked the streets of London with a take away coffee while trying to remember why in the name of God I though wearing high wheels was a good idea for a walk. Was I in some sort of talent competition?

Think about it, girls; if it doesn't feel like you then just don’t do it, there are ways in life to feel complete and you may be surprise to read that many of them don’t involve bars, after work drinks, flirting next to the photocopy machine or buying the latest smart phone on the market.

If my example is anything to go by, here it is what it did for me and is pretty simple; it is called travelling.

 

I can’t say much about travelling that you have not read somewhere else but I can positively tell you that I will tell you something that you have not read before; I am going to take you through the memories of the most delightful  discovery of human strength that there is and that only happens when you climb a mountain.

 

  

Yes, it is that intense!

 

 

Saving the details of how I got to the feet of Kilimanjaro (I mean saving it for another post, of course!) I want to take you through my five hours journey until I reached the roof of Africa, in my mind, even possibly the top of the world and that it is what it seemed to me at that precise moment in time.

The experts say that once at base camp you must sleep before you start to ascend around midnight. I say the experts know nothing.

If my heart could speak they would have told them to shut up. How can you silent your excitement by closing your eyes? How can you give rest to your heart that aches with emotion?

And the moment arrives and your heart beats so strongly that you think it can be heart at the top of the mountain. The silence evolves everything giving the moment the solemnity it deserves.

There it is; the mountain and you. You and the mountain.
 

You start walking towards it but you don’t walk alone; you walk with your dreams, with your strengths, with your fears, with your emotions and ultimately, you walk because you have always known that life is much more that what you have left behind.

The walk makes your humble and there and then, starts a journey that it is not only physical but is a journey that takes you through feelings of extremes.

Fear the mountain not; because the pain, the tiredness, the altitude, the exhaustion are defining the person you will be from now on. There is no way back, this is the first day of your new life.

 

 

And when you think that the white river of stars will never stop lightening the sky above your head, a bright light of hope start raising from behind the mountains and as the sun raises, so does your spirit.

You are a wonderful human being, you feel have reached the top of the world and I guarantee you that nothing will ever be the same again. You have contemplated your minuscule existence,  been humbled by the experience.

Your new life starts here; Live it fearlessly