(NOTE:  The above image is not my own.  It was borrowed for the purpose of this blog from www.trekking-in-nepal.net  I do not own the rights to it nor do I claim it as my own.)

Greetings, good tidings and good energy to all who read this.  I hope that by now, you have enjoyed the fact that we are into a New Year and with that, new dreams, hopes and wishes.  Dreams...  I've blogged on that subject before and I have decided that this year will be the first step into the realization of those dreams.  

My original post on dreams talked at length about my love of all things Everest.  That's Mount Everest.  The 29,028 foot or 8,848 meter chunk of majesty in the Himalaya.  The highest mountain on this earth.  The dream of many an adventurer, hiker and climber.  Nestled in the Himalaya, the greatest mountains on this earth, lay so many peaks which beckon and call to the hiker and mountaineer.  They call to the lost.  They call to the broken.  They call to the souls needing healing and to those whose pride and ego need stoked.  They call to be climbed, because at the root of it, they are simply, there.  

I reference a call to the lost.  I smile when I think about being lost.  Being a lost soul (which early on in blogging and my photography venture I explained the genesis) I tend to think deeply a lot.  And after the year we all just experienced, I thought long and hard over my cup of coffee, quiet morning and a book which has given me the push I need to begin living my own dreams.  If you are a reader like me and love a story about indomitable spirit and will (with a huge dose of hiking and climbing) than I suggest that you check out Everest, It's Not About the Summit by Ellis J. Stewart.  His tale about his journey to climb Everest is not only inspiring, but motivational as well.  I type this blog and smile because I just sent an email correspondence to him thanking him for the kick I needed to not only begin living my own dreams, but also, for sharing his.  Maybe some of you just rolled your eyes or muttered, "Yeah right..." under your breath.  I always thought some dreams were like that.  Thoughts which would materialize in the mind of the dreamer and stay just that; dreams.

I may not have $65,000 to sign up for a climb of Everest this coming May, but I can begin to plan for something which will lead to that in a few years.  A big dream you may be thinking?  An insurmountable goal?  Well, Everest is a big mountain as are all 8,000 meter peaks.  Each dream needs to simply dare to take that first step.  This morning while reading the aforementioned Everest, It's Not About the Summit, I came to a place where it referenced the view on Renjo La Pass near Gokyo Village where the view of Mount Everest, Lohtse, Makalu and Cho Oyu all become visible (these peaks are four (4) of the 14, 8,000 meter peaks on this earth).  Deciding it was time for a second cup of coffee, I walked to my Keurig and began getting a cup ready while taking a glimpse at Instagram.  The first picture on my #Mountaineering follow was of this exact view.  I gasped a bit.  I am a believer in fate and dreams, and I took this one as a huge push into following something I have longed after since first reading Into Thin Air by John Krakauer.  

I picked up my cup of coffee and returned to the quiet confines of the couch where I closed my eyes to simply "be".  To see where my thoughts went and what direction to take after this little odd whisper from the universe.  What I received in return was a smile.  I continued reading but became distracted once again after Ellis Stewart began talking about "negative mindset".  All too familiar for this Lost Soul.  It occurred to me that the first step in this new journey would be to undergo a logo and business shift in my venture into photography.  To change from the current moniker, logo and d.b.a. name into something more positive.  A nod to the positivity gods of this world, if you will.  To also invest more time into completing my own book and begin the process of become a better mountaineer.  To begin saving for what I am sure will be, a life changing adventure into the Himalaya.  That time, begins NOW.

"But Mike, do you really expect to do this or are you just dreaming again?"

Yes.  Yes I do expect to do this.  Now, while I mention Everest and talk of it often much to the chagrin of much youngest daughter who is absolutely, positively terrified of the mountain and the chance of death on it, I am not confining my dream to just this one peak.  My dream is an 8,000 meter peak without using supplemental oxygen if possible.  To climb it in the purest form.  Today, Cho Oyu is that dream to make a reality.  That doesn't mean that in the next year I will pack my bags and go to Nepal.  No.  There will be training, preparation and careful thought to this.  There are two (2) mountains in which my buddy and I want to climb prior to ensuring we are prepared for an assault on an 8,000 meter peak.  We've discussed Kilimanjaro in Africa in 2022 and Aconagua in Argentina in 2023, with other summits mixed in (within the US) over that time.  My dream would culminate in 2024 with the climb of an 8,000 meter peak.  A lofty goal, but all goals should be just that.  I feel the newfound burst of excitement at the potential of this and for the adventure of a lifetime.  

So, over the next few weeks and months, there will be a shift in the name of my venture here as well as a huge focus on positivity.  At 42, I recognize my body is not getting younger and neither am I.  I realize that I will not be content being a 65 year old "arm chair mountaineer".  I want to have stories to tell.  I want to have lived those stories.  More stories than what I have been so fortunate to experience thus far.  I want to tell tales of the Himalaya, Andes and Karakoram.  I want to write more books and share my love of the mountains with the world.  I want to live my own adventure and dreams whether they are in the Sierra Nevada or the Himalaya.

A lot to dream of.  A lot to ponder on.  A lot to smile about.  That's what dreams are for.  To motivate us and keep us looking at what makes our soul burn brightly.  I am reminded of one of the most famous passages from George Mallory from Climbing Everest: The Complete Writings of George Mallory:

"People ask me, 'What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?' and my answer must at once be, 'It is of no use.  'There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron... If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won't see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to live. That is what life means and what life is for.”

"We do not live to eat and make money.  We eat and money to be able to live".  Yes.  Live.  Live our dreams.  Live our ambitions whether they be Everest or the hill in your hometown.  All dreams are worth living.  This year is a perfect time to begin living or at least preparing to live those same dreams.  Explore.  Adventure.  Hike.  Climb.  Climb the mountain you see in your daydreams and the make it happen.  Dream.  Never stop dreaming.  But in that vain, as you dream, what are you doing to make that dream a reality?  Are you content with just going to work everyday and stashing money away for a retirement that is uncertain?  Upon the day you walk out of your office the final time after 40 years in the hustle and bustle of the grind, you could drop dead.  Would those 40 years have been worth it when we all know that had we died in our chair, they would have replaced us in a week.  Think about that.  Why not live those dreams doing the things you dream about while your body is able?  

Another quote which comes to me in this same is from the Shawshank Redemption and stated eloquently by the character Redd, "Get busy living or get busy dying."

Live those dreams so you can die with a content soul and a memory of smiles.  

“Leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but pictures, kill nothing but time.”
 

Namaste, friends.