Thursday, January 13, 2011

Wed Day 12

I thought when you come to "paradise" you are supposed to have postcard weather.  Clear blue skies, oodles of sunshine, and bathing suit only weather!  Boy was I wrong!!!

I know I know you are probably saying, "what is this guy talking about, it seems he's got his shirt off in every picture."  There have been a couple of postcard days here, but today is another one of the "non" postcard days.  It has been raining since last night, and yesterday it rained almost all day... what to do.

Luckily a friend of mine here in Hawaii is quite the adventurous hiker and was game to take me on two different hikes despite the 40 mph gusts of wind and the torrential down poor of rain (see below video).  We trudged off into the elements, I even had my shirt on... that's how bad the weather was.  I was in for a treat.  A step climb, a 300 foot vertical drop off a completely exposed ridge line.  And lots of thick, slippery mud (my shoes were new and white when I started and now they are old, run down, and scarcely a shade of white remains).  I am not going to lie, I was scared.  I even opted to crab walk across part of it because I feared if I stood up, I would be blown off the cliff and thus end my pursuit of 1000 before I even got out of the 30's. 

As I was on one of the hike's yesterday I stopped to think about how if I wasn't doing this challenge there is NOOOOO way I would be out on this ridge line fearing for my life.  That's they type of challenge I would happily tackle in perfect conditions (shirt off weather), but yesterday... NOOOO WAY! That is in essence what has been so great about this challenge and more of what I hope will come.  Challenges that take me out of my comfort zone.  Sure I am a great hiker in "postcard" conditions, but anything less than that?  That's a metaphor for some of the up and coming challenges... spending a day as a blind person, spending the day in a wheel chair, a night as a homeless person.

That is the essence of the challenge to get me to experience life in a different way.  Sure I want to have as much fun as possible, but I also want to experience aspects of life that I would not normally in my day to day life.  Well I am off to get started on today's challenge's, i hope you all have a great day.  Enjoy the pic's and video.

Carpe Diem,

Jesse




4 comments:

  1. stay safe jesse...as you conquer your challenges I keep you in my prayers...your such a humble guy...its hard not to follow you and praise you as you go through "life"...I think you'll be able to really see how the world is...good and bad...take care...I look forward to what your next challenges are...

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  3. Well, I guess Murphy's law targeted you too!
    All I have to do is think about going to the beach and starts raining!
    Now when I cant go to the beach, it's a typical 100F Brazilian day! :/

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  4. You know something that really stuck out to me is the thought you brought up about spending the day as a blind person, in a wheel chair or as a homeless person. In my teens I did a lot of mission trips. The experiences I had were hard but more than that it is some of the most amazing times I have had in my life.
    We took a mission trip to the inner city in Dayton, Ohio when I was 16. One of the things we had to do was have two dollars to spend on food for all day. Which is the statistically average of what most people in poverity in Dayton have to spend per person on food for all day. Its not much. Its kind of scary if you think about being in that situation. But in all it really made me think- What would life be like if I was in poverty, if I had kids and if all I had to feed my family was an average of two dollars a day per person? It makes you really great-ful for the things you have, even if its not much.

    Its an awesome thing to try and experience. It really opens your eyes to how things in the world are. Rather in another country or what most people don't pay attention but how low the poverty really is in America.

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