travel – We Only Get One Chance

THE HARDEST DAY

“It is hard to prepare for the hardest day of your life when you have no idea about what the hardest day in your life will be like.”

That was a quote from my brother, Garrett, last night as I sat in my office with 3 women who will be heading to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2 months.

Since my trek, many local (semi-local in the region) people have stepped up to ask what it is like to do that climb because they are heading that way within months.

“How did you train?”

“What did you bring?”

“What was the most used piece of gear that you didn’t expect?”

“What about medications? And which vaccinations?”

“What is the bathroom situation when you are climbing?”

“What did they feed you?”

“Tell us about summit night…”

“What do you mean ‘Don’t die with your day pack on?'”

The last one was the best one.

I walked and talked these ladies through my entire trip last night over 2 hours of conversation. They are bringing their husbands and teenagers with them.

As we were going through all the details, I realized just how amazing the trip was doing it with an incredible group of women. I remembered around any corner, if anyone needed anything, someone had extra of it and was willing to share. What could you possibly want that one of the 31 women didn’t have...I mean half of them were moms and MOMS ARE PREPARED!!!

We all suffered a lot during the trip but, and this may be a major over-generalization and stereotype (sorry, not sorry), women are pretty graceful at dealing with suffering and moving forward anyway.

When Kelly and I headed over to Kilimanjaro, WHOA Travel gave us a packing list and sort of an idea about the trip with the FAQs of course, but we didn’t have anyone to sit down and have this kind of conversation with, which looking back was a blessing and a curse.

How did I prepare for dealing with having to go to the bathroom out on the trail?

How did I clean my body and what was it like to use wet wipes as a “shower” every morning and night for all those days?

How did I manage my period that started on day 2 of an 8 day trip and summit on the day of highest level of anemia in oxygen levels half the normal of sea level?

What about the hole in my heart and the decreased oxygen levels that I experience at sea level just walking around much less 19,341 ft above sea level.

How did you manage the 10 day trip with a total of 24 hours of sleep? How did you function like that?

What did you do at night when you were unable to sleep? and then the next night? and the next? How did you keep hiking 6-7 hours per day with such little sleep?

How did you keep your clothes in good working order and what materials did you prefer to wear up there?

How do you manage temperatures from 90 degrees at the bottom to below zero at the top?

Were you bored out on the trail during the days?

How do you hike 15,000 ft to 19,341 on the final day with barely anything to eat or drink (due to my own specific circumstances) while having 3 bouts of massive diarrhea and having to still manage your period sitting and squatting on porous lava rocks at zero degrees?

What do you mean your porter had to help your every single step for the final 100 yards to the top?

It seems so strange that going down is actually harder than going up? A walking boot for 6 months following your trek? Still not healed? How is that even possible?

There was a real thought on my plane ride over there that it is possible, possible anytime of course but more possible than anything I had done before, that I wasn’t coming back. Of course that wouldn’t have been ideal, and I am glad that it didn’t happen and I lived to tell all these stories, but truly that trek is quite dangerous. The trail is relatively safe but exposure to the different elements, not to mention 19,341 ft elevation, can cost you your life. I am not sure they ever really considered that deeply…maybe they have but I think they were caught off-guard that I would speak about it so casually.

I also remember, when I had that thought I mentioned above, that I was okay with how my life had been and how much I have done and accomplished and just how many lives I had helped to make a difference, big or small. Because life is truly about contribution. When exposed to cultures like what was in Tanzania, and spend those 10 days with them, life gets really simple. Clothes on their backs, shoes on their feet, roof over their heads, foot to eat and family and that is true happiness. Truly. <<<—-THAT is the simplest thing of all.

So how do you prepare for the hardest day of your life….put a smile on your face, look around, be sure you packed the right layers and take in every last moment because your life will FOREVER BE CHANGED…for the better. Best of luck to that group, I am sure you will all have massive success and I am excited for the report back when you are done! <3

MY TRIBE

As many of you know, I usually spend the holidays with my tribe.

This tribe consists of long time friends that I met during chiropractic college (and a couple since). Many of them have traveled most years together, other parts of my tribe were not able to go and a few have yet to join us. Whoever shows up for the holiday trip is always the perfect blend.

We always meet somewhere warm and spend a week together. The week is filled with laughter and silliness and play…but also some serious talks about the past year and projection and goal-setting for the year ahead.

The greatest thing about my tribe is we have known each other for so many years and have been out in the field doing similar work for that long that we see the world through the same lens and they all get me.

Speaking of being out in the field, we have all been so career-focused that there haven’t been any children on this regular holiday tribe trip until this year.

One couple has grown children and they were with us but we also have beautiful 6 month old twins in the tribe now.

Taking twins across the boarder and to the beach is no easy task and prior discussions sounded a little like this “Just get them there and then there will be 11 adults to 2 babies and we will help all week long.” I am so glad they did.

Much of the tribe lives in close proximity to each other in Denver and get to spend a little more regular time together however being this far away, I don’t get that kind of regular time with any of them.

Although the babies added a lot to the dynamics of the group, it was delightful as we all learn to transition into the “with children” phase of our lives.

We shared great conversation over meals, while sitting around the pools and during walks on the beach. These are the people that light my flame and keep it stoked. We have a text message thread that goes on and on daily for years however having true face to face time fills my soul.

I do not have a tribe like that in Fenton. By the end of the week together, I feel so recharged and ready to take on the New Year. I always head back home rejuvenated but I am also a little sad when I land in Detroit and drive home knowing just how far away they all are. I miss them terribly and in a small way I dread coming home. I have a great life here but have always felt a little lonely following a week with my tribe.

This time was a little different. My boyfriend Mike was able to make it down for the week and of course we traveled home together. He is my ideal match I feel fortunate that he blends so well into my group of friends. Our connection fills my life so full on a daily basis and has ever since the day we met 9 months ago.

Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - My Tribe - Dr Erica Peabody

So this time around, instead of having to head home alone and readjust to Fenton and life apart from my tribe, I got to come home with him and together have put some action steps in place towards our goals we set for this year already!!

Although I have lived in pure gratitude for my incredible life for a long time now, I have always said that “Life is sweeter when shared.” I am finding so much truth to that with a connection like this.

My tribe is part of my lifeline. Our text message thread has continued on just as silly with bouts of seriousness as before. I laugh all day long with these people that are thousands of miles away and am grateful for technology helping us easily stay connected. I love them all so much and miss the babies and am sad I don’t get to watch them grow up in person.

To have this incredible man alongside me as all the days progress wins over all of that. He is my tribe, but more than that, he is my safe space, my recharging station and my true home. I tell him daily how grateful I am he is in my life but once more here (because he always reads) Thanks Babe. 🙂

DETOUR

Just when life seems like it is heading in one direction, something happens and we are off on a detour.

I absolutely love to travel…love, love, love to see new places. I love having a change of scenery and switching things up on a regular basis. I love taking the detour…that is as long as I have time for said detour.

I was sitting on a bench in a parking lot with some friends last weekend while we waited for our planes to pull up on the other side of a chain link fence…and as I describe this, I pulled a picture off the internet below so that you can get the visual.

The scene…two 20 foot long park benches back to back underneath a rickety metal awning, a small white portable podium with “Sansa” and “Nature Air” written on the front, a chain link fence with a ragged gate that wouldn’t hold up against any kind of force, a small refrigerator with a padlock on it labeled “Snack Bar” and on the other side of the fence are a couple 12 seater planes.

When we pull into the parking lot, it resembles more of a bus station than an airport. The funniest thing is when you walk up to the small white podium, they ask you which airline you are flying with and then depending on which, one of 2 men step up to the podium to assist.

The luggage is tagged and the kind man hands me a laminated “Sansa” brochure that he calls my “boarding pass” and I am prepared to get on the plane.

As I am waiting, I realize that my luggage is still sitting off to the side of the runway and doesn’t appear to be heading with the rest of the group to the luggage compartment in the belly of the plane. The kind man then mentions to me that “Your bag no fit on plane due to balance. I send to your home.”

Ideally it is not good to ever travel separate from my luggage, but if you are telling me you are going to have it delivered directly to my doorstep, then it will be alright to let my ocean-scented, sand-filled bag of beach clothes show up to my home instead of being checked onto my plane.

So I jump on my plane and am off while my luggage is taking a detour.

In San Jose I reconnect with my friends for dinner and a little more time together as my flight will be departing at 2am.

A few hours later, I arrive to the airport only to I discover said flight is now delayed to 3am. The woman at the Spirit Airlines desk checks me through to Detroit and hands me 2 boarding passes, one for now and one for my connecting flight in Fort Lauderdale.

I arrive in Lauderdale realizing I have limited time to get though customs and make my connection. At this particular moment I am grateful to be traveling separate from my large suitcase which I would have to wait for and recheck after customs…this expedites my transition onto America soil and I have potential to make up some time.

I sprint through the airport and make it to my gate with a few minutes to spare. I walk up to the Spirit Airlines counter and the woman takes one look at my boarding pass, tells me I do not have a seat on that flight…AND THEN proceeds to board 4 “stand-by” passengers onto the flight while I am standing right there.

You know the level of disappointment when you order the most delicious food at a restaurant that you have been craving since the last time you were there 3 months ago…and when you get right down to the last bite, your best friend reaches their fork over and takes that last morsel of goodness? That is what it felt like in that moment, MULTIPLIED BY 1,000!!!!

“Ma’am we have you booked on tomorrow’s flight out”.

“Are you going to compensate me for hotel stay for the night?”

“Well no.”

Hearing this news after being up for 28 straight hours, did not go over well. Having her board 4 “stand-by” passengers while I stood right in front of her also didn’t go over well…MULTIPLIED BY 1,000!!!

This time, not so gracefully, I detour…

I find a cab and take a ride up to Lauderdale by the Sea and check-in to a hotel. Serious false advertising and I make quick of a lesson that I should check a room out before checking-in.

So I detour…

I find a nice Sheraton about 20 minutes away that has rooms available and get checked-in. As I am heading up to my room, I spot a cool little bar inside the hotel that has windows into water tanks of some sort. It is eye-catching and then I read “Mermaid Show 6:30 Friday and Saturday Evenings”. Today is Saturday, WHAT LUCK!!! My original plan to nap for the next 6 hour will have a small detour in the middle to the Mermaid show.

I arrive early and pull up a seat next to an incredible couple that had just gotten off one of the cruise ships. We talk about our vacations and then we detour into some really amazing conversation about life and living, things you usually discuss with long time friends. Because my luggage was on a detour, my plan was to wear the clothes I had on my back until I got home…whenever that may be. By the end of a 4 hour conversation with this couple, they pay for my meal and she offers me clean clothes.

As I lay down in my bed to sleep fast, I travel through my memory of the events of that day. Every possible thing that could go wrong with travel, did. It was truly challenging. In the end, I was so grateful for the opportunity to see my very first Mermaid Show and spend time with these magnificent people.

My flight in the morning turns out to be simple. It is an entire day later however I buckle into my seat, we take off on time, we land on time and off I go…easy since I don’t have to stop and collect my luggage (which finally showed up to a local airport a week later…enough material for its own blog post).

On my drive home from the airport, I take a detour to Whole Foods…because I am hungry and I need food in my house when I get home. In retrospect, I am grateful I made that stop as the streets filled with close to 2 feet of snow over the next 24 hours.

This trip seems to go on and on and on and there is one final detour…my best friend of almost 20 years opened her dream yoga studio, Bent Yoga, in Brighton on that very day. It required that I truck through all the snow to give her a congratulatory hug, but it was all absolutely perfect timing.

Sometimes we are presented with a huge bright orange sign in front of our face that says “DETOUR” but often the sign is a faint whisper, a small calling in our heart. If we can have a little bit of trust in the fact that there is a much larger plan, we can listen to those signs and settle in gracefully.

I am grateful for that trip, I am grateful for that time and I am grateful for the people that I met along the way. I am one that seeks out adventure and enjoys taking the long way home. Though that was a little too much detouring for my likings, I am grateful to have had that experience if for no other reason than it seems there isn’t a possible way for a day of travel to get more complicated than that.

In the midst of it all, the moments of sweetness serve as a reminder to do my best to be a little more accepting of life when it takes its next detour.

RE-DIPPED

I have been traveling a lot in the past 2 months…some for family, some for fun with friends and a trip to get, what a lot of us in the chiropractic profession call,”re-dipped”.

There is a phenomenal chiropractic seminar in California called Cal Jam that I am able to attend for continuing education and license renewal. There are seminars all over the country, even some really close to home, however I choose to go and spend my time with the best of the best and have sought out a couple venues to keep on my regular schedule every year.

Cal Jam always exceeds expectations and this year was no exception.

Some of my nearest and dearest friends and I all decided we would meet there this year, get hotel rooms together and be able to spend some time catching up in between listening to the speakers.

Chiropractors are kind of a strange breed to begin with. We have some really “wacky” ideas about the body’s incredible ability to heal, a philosophy that guides our profession and gives us framework for life, living and all things natural, we help people through the use of our hands, we practice what we preach and most of us absolutely love what we do. Put a few thousand of us in one huge theater, add in a little music, and the positive energy is palpable. For me, add to that some of my nearest and dearest friends, that also love what I love, and I feel revitalized, rejuvenated, re-energized…”re-dipped”.

The line-up of speakers was top notch; Joe Dispenza, Brenden Burchard, Garrett Gunderson, Jeanne Ohm, Barbara Loe Fisher just to name a few…some of the greatest in the profession and others that present on topics that compliment our profession.

When the days come to an end, we gather as groups and invade the local restaurant scene to “talk it down”. Our conversations range from the topics the speakers have presented, how our practices are going, business and money matters, family, travel plans, matters of the heart and so on. There is often roaring laughter coming from these conversations and in a small way, that positive energy that was palpable during the day flows out the doors of the theater, down the streets and into the local establishments.

Have you ever been around positive energy and felt your energy lift? I assume we have a small effect on the wait staff that is serving us, the bar tenders that are pouring the wine and maybe even the people that are sitting around the tables next to ours…or maybe it is bigger than we think…Really tune into this YouTube clip around the 2:20 minute mark…she happens to be one of the people sitting at one of the restaurants while I was there last week.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at6NsWoYGBI[/youtube]

“They look very happy, that’s all I know…” she says. I just love this glimpse into what kind of effects are happening due to positive energy. Happiness is contagious…being positive is contagious. Give it a try sometime.

I love to travel. Actually the process of getting to a place is not very glamorous with packing bags, driving to the airport, making it on time, lugging heavy suitcases around, dealing with security, sitting on the plane next to strangers for long hours, finding the rental car place, dealing with getting all the way to the destination, checking in…none of that is what I would call “fun”.

However having a change of scenery, seeing new places, learning new things, meeting new people, exploring new areas both physically and mentally…I FREAKIN’ LIVE FOR THAT!!! Something about all of that gives me a fresh start almost like pressing a “reset” button. Then when it has anything to do with the profession that I love so much, with people that love what I love, and the philosophy that I live in, there is nothing better than getting “re-dipped” and returning home to serve at a higher level. And yes, yes we are all really, really happy.

A NIGHT

Many evenings after work, I spend over at the yoga studio in Holly (thanks Kathryn for creating such an amazing space and for making it so close and accessible). The nights I attend yoga I get home at 8:30 so in essense, if I choose to got to yoga in the evening, the night is basically over. I get out of work at 6:30 every night so I have very limited time to make much happen. This evening I thought I would go to yoga and then come home and eat and clean my house, do laundry, unpack my suitcases (yes I have already been home 5, almost 6, days) and get things straightened up around here. Some of you know that I just got a 2 year old chocolate lab a month ago. He is such a blast and how could you possibly not fall in love with him with a face like that. So he was looking at me with his eyes and bringing toys to me (which a luggage tag was his toy of choice this evening) so I layed down on the floor next to him and he wanted to wrestle. 1 hour later I realized I hadnt gotten anything done and now it was too late to start. I did manage to eat, however my house is still a mess, there are still piles of laundry, and no vacuuming has been done and it was all so worth it. I was never a dog person before a month ago. I wanted a change in my life and people thought I was nuts. Choco brings so much joy to my days. We argue a lot, I always win, but in the end of the day, he is way more important than dealing with laundry detergent and vacuum bags…at least for today anyways.