I wrote a post the other day titled -
Why ... Just Because It's There?!
questioning why someone would want to risk their life to climb a mountain just for bragging rights if they lived to tell their tale to others.
But some people do it much more than once and not just with this particular mountain/labyrinth.
Mazes & Labyrinths: A Fool's Journey?
Climbers wait in line to summit Everest. Nirmal Purja |
As I was reading a chapter titled 'Healing and Illness' in the book 'Exploring the Labyrinth' it struck me that Everest is kind of like a labyrinth if you know the way to the top (center) and back to where you came from.
I've walked this "mountain" below many times, and it struck me that this walk is much like walking a labyrinth as the track spirals its way to the top and back down again.
Does Synchromysticism Sound 'Mental' to You?
In a sub-chapter titled 'Illness and Pain as a Teacher' in the 'Healing and Illness' chapter of 'Exploring the Labyrinth' a cancer patient named Sandra Sarr may have provided an answer for the "why" question people like me ask people who climb mountains like Everest.
"Sandra S[t?]arr found that cancer sharpened her need to find her "heart's desires" in life.
She used the labyrinth to explore the big questions, opening to guidance she received while walking: "I needed to know:
What is truly important to me?
What am I really doing here?
What's my life all about?
When you are facing the potential end of your life, believe me, you're much more motivated to ask these questions, and receive guidance on them, than you might otherwise be."
Make a list of all of the BIG Questions that pertain to your life, ones that you may have, as most of us have, put on the back burner while you went to work, raised kids, took vacations, watched TV.
Ask questions like Sarr asked after she received her diagnosis."
So, when I ask a mountaineer why, they are probably asking themselves the same question and by doing something so dangerous are looking for their own subconscious answers to life and meaning.
Habits … Walking the Labyrinth of Life?
Personally though, I'd much rather ask those same questions without having to venture through the death zone and back.
Mind you though, maybe I would have traded one trip through the death zone for almost 25 years of working in a stinking maze looking for my fort-nightly cheese;-)
I've walked this "mountain" below many times, and it struck me that this walk is much like walking a labyrinth as the track spirals its way to the top and back down again.
Does Synchromysticism Sound 'Mental' to You?
Mount Warning/Wollumbin, Australia |
On one of my treks up Mt. Warning, looking back down |
"Sandra S[t?]arr found that cancer sharpened her need to find her "heart's desires" in life.
She used the labyrinth to explore the big questions, opening to guidance she received while walking: "I needed to know:
What is truly important to me?
What am I really doing here?
What's my life all about?
When you are facing the potential end of your life, believe me, you're much more motivated to ask these questions, and receive guidance on them, than you might otherwise be."
Make a list of all of the BIG Questions that pertain to your life, ones that you may have, as most of us have, put on the back burner while you went to work, raised kids, took vacations, watched TV.
Ask questions like Sarr asked after she received her diagnosis."
"the house of the double axe"?! |
Habits … Walking the Labyrinth of Life?
Personally though, I'd much rather ask those same questions without having to venture through the death zone and back.
Mind you though, maybe I would have traded one trip through the death zone for almost 25 years of working in a stinking maze looking for my fort-nightly cheese;-)
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