News from Jules | 06.27.2022 | Just Say Yes
There was a split second between his offer and my emphatic, “Yes!” Enough time to hesitate, but not enough time to think. Like any heartfelt choice, I had already decided yes before the opportunity arose.
I set out that Saturday morning on a scouting mission to the ‘Gunks, “the best rock climbing east of the Mississippi” according to the plaques along the trail. After learning how to climb mountains in the Pacific Northwest for the last year and a half, the Shawangunk Mountains look more like a long cliff than a mountain range to me.
I knew when I said Yes to Omega, I sadly said No to mountaineering. Not forever, but for this season. While I left my ice ax and crampons in Oregon, I brought my helmet, harness, and climbing shoes.
What better place to learn how to rock climb than in one of the best climbing spots in the country?
Even though my objective for the day was just getting beta, or information as it’s called in climbing lingo, I packed all of my climbing equipment with my hiking gear. Ready for anything, per usual.
I wrapped up the 5-mile loop along the gravel Undercliff Road, then Overcliff Road trails right on schedule to eat lunch, drive the hour back to campus, shower and get to my shift by 3:00 p.m. I had learned a lot already through observation but I still had a ton of questions.
As I walked back to my car, I started chatting with a climbing couple I had seen on the wall a couple of hours earlier, and surprisingly, a little, curly blond head popped out of the man’s backpack. It was a climbing family!
Just a moment after I said goodbye and beeped my car unlocked, I heard my name.
“Wait, Jules, do you have your climbing shoes? Want to come bouldering with us?”
Yes and Yes.
The mom carried the crash pad, the dad carried the 18-month-old and I followed along while I scarfed down my almond butter and jam sandwich and calculated how much time I had to climb but still get to work on time.
For the next 37 minutes, we took turns climbing, spotting, and blowing bubbles for the baby. I’m not sure who was more thrilled: me as I reached the top of my first V1 outdoor boulder route or their son as the giant bubbles flew by and popped right in his face.
If I didn’t have to work I would have stayed the rest of the day and stopped by the local climber’s hangout in New Paltz for a cold beer. Alas, duty called. Scooting into campus with a minute to spare and chalk still under my fingernails, I felt full of what possibilities the summer might hold.
“Summer is the season when nature comes into its fullness,” said Angeles Arrien.
The seeds that were planted now coming to fruition.
Like how all of the climbing that I’ve done so far this year offered the confidence and motivation to seize this opportunity this summer.
There has been tension in the last couple of weeks since the full moon and last week’s Summer Solstice. Paying attention to the details and the big picture at the same time, seemingly pulling us in opposing directions similar to the tension of summer.
A season full to the brim of both productivity and play.
Of sunshine and heat.
Of energy and exhaustion.
If we embrace what is. If we let the tension liberate us, they can coexist.
We are challenged to not think, to not even hesitate, but simply surrender to whatever yes is right in front of us. To live every day, every moment, to the fullest.
One immediate yes turns into another.
I’m in! was the obvious response when the climbing family texted me last Monday afternoon about meeting up at Gravity Vault, the indoor rock climbing gym in Poughkeepsie, NY. I didn’t know yet they were such skilled climbers and super cool people—an artist and a software engineer—but I had an inkling.
I thought I could do both—climb and write—but by the time I drove the 40 minutes from Poughkeepsie up to Rhinebeck, I was too hungry to think. Then I couldn’t find any WiFi on Omega’s campus.
This week we climbed again and I learned more new moves. Plus, I brought my dinner so that I could stay and write from the rock gym using their stable WiFi. Yes!
May you say yes to this season of life.
Love,
Jules
P.S. Heads up, there won’t be a newsletter next Monday, July 4, while I’m exploring Banff National Park with my extended family. So stoked to see them and be in really big mountains again! May you enjoy your Fourth of July holiday weekend being outside as much as possible!