The THPL journey is founded on the idea that we live our life in a way that allows the experiences that we construct to teach us, inform us, and make us feel, in a very real way, life in the raw. Living life in this way is a bit unprotected and it may appear to be risky. But risk is about the degrees of what might happen, not necessarily the consequences. So what we need to do is to evaluate the consequences of our decisions (not just risks) and make our best and most informed decision with what we know and how we move forward. And it was with this perspective that we visited Guatemala and hiked Fuego and enjoyed the time there in a very deep way. Two months removed from being on Fuego, she erupted and created a very dangerous, deadly, and scary situation that might leave one of us wondering “what if”. This thinking though, is rather unproductive, as we have no control over what mother nature decides. And we cannot live our lives in a way in which fear stops us from doing something. Weighing practical versus theoretical risk is what we need to consider and to overcome fear. And this is what we do each time. So, looking back and saying “what if” does not help, rather thinking about going forward and how much better it will be when we get there is.

Loving life when I am thinking