Beautiful

Today I worked with a group of women in a conference who were here to release the frustrations of life and just relax for a week. Amazing things happened and it was purely uplifting.

I started with a group of women rather early in the morning (maybe too early for me) who had goals and expectations in climbing the rock wall. Most met their goals, but none made it to the top until the very last one took her second turn. This woman had set a small goal of getting halfway up for herself, and when she reached it, she told us she was ready to come down. Seeing as she looked like she had quite a bit of steam left, we did what any supportive group would do...we pushed her to go on, knowing that she could do what the rest hadn't been able to accomplish. She kept going further and further, stating the whole way that she was stuck, what was she to do next? With encouragement from her team, she made it to the top of the wall to ring the bell. Unknowingly, this woman had accomplished all that the other women had wanted to. They found success in her achievement-it was a beautiful moment.

Later in the afternoon I facilitated another group of only three women in the same wall climbing activity. I wondered how things would go with so few participants, as I haven't facilitated anything so small before. I figured it could go really well, or really badly. This was partially because of the size and partially because my severe lack of sleep from the night before was clouding my ability to ask meaningful processing questions of these women.

Another staff/friend of mine came by to say hello in the beginning of this activity and had happened to have had a wonderful tearful moment with the first woman to climb. When this same woman made it to the top, Julie was there waiting and reminded her that she belonged, referring back to her earlier experience. That was all it took for the tears to flow. I was touched. This woman used this experience to let go of something, I don't know what, that seemed to have been weighing her down. Reaching the top made her free. It was an emotional experience for all, including myself.

I was honored to have witnessed such personal moments in strangers and was adorned at the end by the first tearful participant with a card that read "beautiful". It reminds me that I have to have confidence in myself at all times, even when things seem chaotic. This confidence comes from taking good care of myself, especially mentally, by doing what makes me happy.

I like to think that we are continuously stumbling towards perfection. Whether we reach it or not isn't important. It's what we gather AND USE along the way.