..and what do you do?

I have a new job.

Well, I'd use the term job loosely.   I have a new take on life and it begins with my employment status.  See, I've started working at a rock gym and I hardly view what I do as "work".  Its more like I get to play at a gym with people who use the words double fisherman, crimp, jug, sequenced and projecting in regular conversation. The climbing community is an awesome one.  It is a very inclusive in a-kids-coming-together-on-the-playground kind of way.  Everyone is allowed to play, regardless of rank. And everyone cheers each other on in a new accomplishment. There are a few exceptions but those people aren't the rule.

For anyone who doesn't agonize over the details of my life <read no one> I left my job in November 2012 and have been floating ever since.  I have been sitting on the couch, eating bon bons watching Downton Abbey. I do stuff like laundry, pay bills, clean and take care of our new dwarf lemon tree named Bob.

Meet Bob

There has been a significant reduction of stress in my life. I had the bad sort of worldly stress. Stressing about how I spend my approx 12 days of vacation, how much I know about so-and-so's position at work, or why I wasn't invited to a meeting that obviously involved my job. I stressed over worldly stuff.  I still have stress but its manageable.

See, I'm really trying to do this thing a friend once told me about working for the Lord. That friend is named Heather and she just recently gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Talk about doing work for God! When I worked at my old job, I was doing it for ME. For selfish reasons of feeling I had to prove myself to someone.  Last time I checked, my husband, family, close friends and certainly not God have ever asked me to prove my existence.

Anyway, back to working at the gym. One afternoon my husband very blankly told me to DO SOMETHING. An hour later I was dropping an application off at the gym. It was a surprise after a month of not hearing back I got a call for the job at the perfect moment. Mr W was just about to leave for a 2 week business trip. We (husband and I) were worried I'd sink into a couch surfing bum. But God provided for me a way fill up my days and a way to meet new friends. The killer biceps have also been a pretty nice perk ;)

That pipe dream just became a teeny bit more plausible though, I'm still intent on walkin' where the Lord leads.

-Mrs. W

Pipe dream

Mr W. and I have a pipe dream and it is climbing El Capitan.

Source

Pipe dreams are interesting creatures because they may never happen.  That's the whole point.  The dream part indicates the impossible.  But the pipe part of it is all about being on a path, a journey that could one day lead you there.   This pipe dream was born from being a child of the 90s.  [Like every kid] I too, dreamed of taking home a piece of that glowing, radical rock. As a kid growing up in a family who, once saw a rock wall in a mall in the middle of Ohio, I truly thought that Guts was representation of truth in climbing.  Then I moved to California and fell in love with the real thing. You can read a tiny recap of our climbing history in this post.

Table Scraps

Well, we are re entering the pipe simply by returning to the climbing gym.  After moving in November, our gym bags haven't seen the light of day. We are incredibly far away from this dream.

90ft wall, Tahoe

My hands are no longer covered in the dense, thick skin pads required to pinch, crimp and swing myself to become an extension of the wall.  My forearms and shoulders, while still reminiscent of muscles, have lost most of the strength they used to carry.  The flexibility to swing, stretch backwards and touch my toes to my ears has been replaced with stiff joints and an inability to get my heels flat in downward dog.

I am by definition. out. of. climbing. shape.  But there is a difference between today and yesterday.  Today, I am lacing up my shoes, tying figure 8's and getting a new belay cert.  I am making the effort to get back on the wall.

Will doing this lead to my pipe dream? Definitely not.  But stringing days like today over the course of years just might.

And that's just fine with me.  God may certainly have other plans for us; if that involves spending a crap ton of time training and immersing myself into climbing, so be it. I'm letting Him know I'm totally game.

Do do do do doooooo you have it?

-mrs dubs