Life is crazy…and wonderful!!
For a couple of days my wife and I went on a road trip through a big part of the West area in Colorado, and then touched Utah by visiting the Arches National Park. It was mostly a trip to see places and nature, while driving many scenic roads in this part of the country.
While at Arches National Park, we stopped at several places to take pictures, and even walk a little to spend some time under some of the arches that can be found there. At some point, in one of the many trails the park offers, we decided to go walking to reach the main arch at the park, the one that is used in the Utah car plates.
We really didn’t weight what we were doing. We just started walking and thinking, if it gets too complicated, we just go back to the car. So we didn’t carry water with us (as it is supposed to do), and nothing that could be necessary throughout the trip. We just walked the trail, and at some point we found it wouldn’t be logic to quit the walk after all we already traveled, so we should keep going all the way to the arch.
Later, after lots of walking while sweating and panting, we realized our mistake. The trail was mostly uphill in rough terrain, truly requiring lots of water and many breaks. It quickly became very exhausting and too much for our bad physical condition and our personal physical problems (my wife has almost no vision in one eye, not having depth perception, and I have Fibromyalgia Syndrome, not having physical strength and balance). Yet we kept going while laughing; a limping person guiding a blind one!!
Many times throughout the walk I remembered the wheel chair I suppose to end up in, and kept going more out of challenging my future rather than true physical strength. Quickly it became a matter of moving one leg at the time, just to do another step, instead of trying to reach a destination. My lungs couldn’t take enough air; my body sides and my chest were hurting really bad, and the pain in my legs was extreme, so I just concentrated in making one more step, one more step, one more step, not even thinking about ten feet ahead.
We must have looked really bad, because in one of the many breaks we took, a group of young people coming back already from the arch, stopped by our side and gave us water they didn’t need, so we collected three bottles of really needed water.
After drinking so much needed water, and resting for about ten minutes, we resumed the walk to keep pursuing our goal of reaching the arch. It took us a good another thirty minutes of walking through inclined and rough planes of rock and dirt before we reached the arch.
It was very emotional for us! After so much effort, pain and tiredness, after lots of sweating and doubts about our own physical capabilities, we reached the prize we were aiming for; the main arch of the park.
The arch was standing there; like a god waiting to be reached to be adored. Letting people sacrifice themselves in a tiring and exhausting walk, just to be at its feet, to admire its beauty, while taking many pictures to show later, as a proof of really being there.
We got there! Not a big thing for young and healthy people, but a true victory for us, in our bad physical condition, and with our personal physical problems. It was victory for us! We made it; we got there; we reached the arch.
For me it was a very special and emotional moment, mostly because after all the physical effort involved in getting there, loosing balance so many times, and feeling my chest ready to explode at any moment, while feeling so much pain everywhere in my body, I could prove to myself that I will not end up in a wheelchair! I could say I will not accept the wheelchair, and that I will fight it to the end, but at that moment I got proof of my decision and goals. It wasn’t just my desires and personal will into it; now I had proof of what I was feeling, desiring, and fighting at. I can prove wrong the doctor who said I will be in a wheelchair in five years! I will not!
So after the initial emotional feelings we had, and after recovering our breath and resting our muscles in our body by just seating there while watching the arch, we walked around and took some pictures and videos as memories of the very special moment we lived together. And I even celebrated my reinforced will of never ending up in a wheel chair by claiming some rocks, just to have a better view of that beautiful place.
We really never know what life will brings us next. What supposed to be just a short and pleasant walk to see the arch, became a challenge that helped us reinforce our thoughts of never giving up to what seems to be inevitable destiny.
Raul
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