Believing in yourself

As a child, I was good at a few things but I never had the confidence to trust that my successes were real. I minimized any natural talent or intellect and would say I was a good singer “in a small town” or that i wasn’t smart I just “worked harder than everyone else did. ” I have put a lot of distance from the person I am today and that little girl, but she does show up. On the trail today, the weather was crazy hard…there was rain, persistently strong winds with balance challenging gusts, and windchills around 40 (which isn’t too fun when you are wet.) That said, I was enjoying the challenge, knowing that I would be going up over 1000 meters and back down over 1000 meters and going around 16 miles. We’ll, all of a sudden I see the 3 London ladies coming towards me. Little girl Heidi was racking her brain to figure how she could have messed up so badly that she mistook going up for down. I mean, the first time I met these women I was going the wrong way. Rest assured I know up from down and these women, along with a couple who I had seen at breakfast, were going back because a local hiker advised them it was too dangerous to continue in the rain and strong gusts. What I felt most profoundly was relief that I was indeed going in the correct direction. I reasserted the confidence I have been building over the last 50

years and confidently and carefully trudged onward until I had made it up and down that mountain, battling winds and cold, thinking courage thoughts, and reciting the names on every stone in my backpack.