Finding Peace in the Past

Life either moves too fast, or too slow. As I sit at my writing perch I realize there are events from weeks ago that I’ve yet to write about or reflect upon. That is one of my favorite things about writing: enriching my experiences by pondering what wisdom they have to impart to me.

Two weeks ago I was recovering from the Outdoor Retailer trade show, held in Salt Lake City. During the show Shaun and I stayed with some mutual friends, Stefan, Katie and Kevin; all of us are connected in one way or another from Adam Lawton, our dear friend that passed away in an avalanche in January of this year. Stefan was a close friend to Adam, and was with him when he died. Typically when I’d visit Salt Lake I would always stay with Adam, he was an old college friend, and the type of friend who, no matter what, the door and couch were always open.

It’s been seven months since Adam died, and I feel like I’ve learned many things about life and death since then. I probably don’t full comprehend all of the things I’ve contemplated, but I do know that death brings people closer together, and makes us there for each other. I barely knew Stefan before Adam passed, yet because of our connection to Adam he offered up his home (exactly how Adam would before) to us for the week.

One of the things I know about death now (Adam was my first truly close friend to die) is that the person’s spirit is always with you. I felt Adam’s spirit with me the day the news broke (and the ocean of tears that came with it) and I still feel it now. I feel it encouraging me to do as much as I can in this body, because the world needs us to be at our best, and we need to be at our best to be happy.

The more I write, the more I wish I had more time and space to write, because the potential for stories is infinite. Pondering my dear friends untimely departure from his body makes me think of a conversation I had yesterday with another good friend, Badger.

Ironically, or maybe cosmically, I met Badger at the Red Rocks climbing area in Las Vegas, just before I moved to Durango. I figured I’d see him around, but it was only after over a year of moving there that I ran into him, just days after Adam passed away. (More whimsically, Badger has a mutual friend to Adam’s, that I met at Adam’s memorial and then realized the connection.)

Badger has turned out to be a perfect climbing partner, because we both climb at similar levels, and are looking to increase our capacity for what we are capable of. We are also just a year apart, and in our mid-thirties we are well aware that those are the prime years for achieving one’s climbing potential.  

He is also a very spiritual person, and I feel open to discuss whatever is going on internally with my own spirit. Yesterday while driving home after our climbing session the subject of past lives came up. I was telling him about a friend who suggested we knew each other in a past life. I’ve never had anyone suggest this to me, and I’ve been thinking about that ever since she said that. This friend and I also have an incredible connection, and I’ve also wondered where such connections come from.

Although Badger is very open minded, I felt somewhat hesitant to bring this subject up. But, Badger in his wisdom, simply told me that past lives are something he has accepted, he feels his greatest friends in this life were those he was close to in previous existences. He also shared that his times of high energy meditation led him to believe this.

When he said this it just made so much sense, as if I was simply waiting for him to say it. I’m still pondering it now, and I will be for a long time.

To conclude these thoughts, I’m always inspired by other’s writing, and this last week I found out a co-worker of mine blogs, and I was pleasantly surprised by her offerings. If you like stream of consciousness blogging, www.whiskeychatter.blogspot.com is sure to delight.

Until next Monday, Luke’s Bloggie blog is singing off.