This re-blog (from July 2014) seemed a good reminder for me as a find myself getting frustrated at times by what I can’t do rather than remembering how lucky I am to only have a temporary ‘disability’. In a way this broken bone has provided many positives and given me plenty of insight into the wonderful life I have and the amazing people I have around me. We are hard-wired to focus on the negative for survival but focusing on the positive is so much more rewarding and enjoyable!
We have had some beautiful weather here on the Coast. Freezing mornings to be sure however clear blue skies and loads of sunshine have visited us for the last 7 days! It has been fantastic and over the weekend we made the most of the sunshine to travel south with a friend of himself’s to visit the glaciers.
Himself and I have visited these glaciers before some 10 years back however we have only driven past the turn off since living on the Coast. It was definitely on our ‘to do’ list to be sure so it was great to have the push, from a visitor, to join in on an expedition. The first thing that struck us – apart from the fact that we were majorly overdressed for such a glorious day – was just how far the glacier had retreated. Instead of the 30 min walk, of our previous trip, to reach the glacier it was now 45 mins and then that was only to a lookout which was 500 m from the glacier. We, all the adults that is, felt a sense of shock and horror that the children with us would probably not be able to bring their children to see the same sights due to global warming. It also made me realise just how important it is to visit these places now and appreciate them now, while we still have them!
The walk up had changed too as it was now a smooth track to walk upon, leading us ever closer to the beauty of the ice. Themselves did a magnificent job of walking there and back which was helped no doubt by the distraction of someone new to ‘talk to’ – the reality is more ‘talk at’ 🙂 Although we passed quite a few people on the track the look out was fairly free of tourists so we were able to have a good look and enjoy the peace and beauty of the whole scene. There was a bit of talk about safety and staying behind the ropes. There were also memories of how far down the valley it was before and of how people used to be able to climb onto the glacier from the end of the walk, correct equipment attached of course. This is no longer the case and a view from the lookout is all that is possible without paying a chunk of change.
After a quiet walk up with only the birds and themselves chatter around it surprized me to suddenly be inundated with noise from above. Helicopters and airplanes were now on their circuit from town over the glacier, following each other at intervals with their eager tourists and filling the air with pure noise pollution. I guess it is one of the prices we pay for having a tourist fed economy. I found myself, along with everyone else our group, constantly looking up to the skies to see where they were or to berate them for the amount of distraction they caused.
Then I realised that maybe I should be berating myself for allowing the noise to distract me. I was in fact paying that small distraction far more attention than the enormity of beauty I had around me and thought how like life that is. How often do we get caught up in the small, annoying and insignificant rather than focusing on the important? How often are we distracted by the minor issues or events rather than staying focused on the major ones? I know it is very often for me. I am easily swayed into looking up into empty skies rather than focusing on the beautiful path I’m already on. So this week I am going to go back to basics and focus on the now, on the beautiful path I am on and see where that brings me too. How about you?
Arohanui
Y
Becoming Healthy 