Life after the trail -any inspiring words?

[Tha Wookie]

As many hikers know, experiences on the trial can test our mettle after we return home and are faced with decisions in life and which way to go. This thread is a place to drop advice or ask some in how to re-enter the "real world" and be satisfied with yourself while doing it.

I'll start with a great quote I turned over this morning:


"We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. It needs a divine man [or woman] to exhibit anything divine. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart in his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine Providence has found for you; the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men [and women] have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the Eternal was stirring at their heart, working through their hands, predominating all their being. And now we are men [and women], and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendental destiny; and not pinched in a corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but redeemers and benefactors, pious aspirants to be noble clay plastic under the Almighty effort, let us advance and advance on Chaos and the Dark. [!]

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841, Self-Reliance, p.31



What words do you have to share, be they yours or anothers?

[Maalox]

1. When you get home, stop eating like a hiker. Reduce your calorie intake immediately. Don't give yourself a week to binge. Get on a program like Weight Watchers if you have to.

2. Don't waste too much time thinking about what you've learned about yourself. Don't force life lessons on yourself to justify "dropping out". If there are any such lessons, they'll come to you in due time.

3. Don't talk too much about the hike to others. People in the real world will be initially impressed, but they also will get bored by it a lot faster than other hikers will.

[Lone Wolf]

Life after the trail-any inspiring words?
Get a friggin job!

[Footslogger]

Give yourself time to comprehend what you experienced and accomplished.

We live life going forward but we can only truly understand it in retrospect.

'Slogger

[Jaybird]

Life after the trail-any inspiring words?
Get a friggin job!

hey...

got any job openings in the LONE WOLF CORPORATION?


hehehehehehehe

[warren doyle]

My life is the trail - past, present, future.

[fiddlehead]

Yeah, the journey doesn't end. It just the start of the rest of your life.

[Ender]

You never get the trail out of your system.

[The Weasel]

Six years past the start of the Trail, these lessons remain...

1) Shave, but not right away. This is true for women, as well as men.
2) Give a buck or so to homeless people when they ask. They're not much different than we were. We called it 'trail magic' when someone gave us something.
3) Eat the same way, but less. It is healthy, and most of us didn't eat that way before.
4) Look back, but don't stop moving forward. It works in life, as on the Trail.
5) Remember those who cared for you then. Also remember those who didn't.

The Weasel

[Nean]

Take the lessons you learn in the real world and apply them to the man made world.

[sleeveless]

Listen to Maalox and the others. I should have joined weight watchers! I have gained back all 38 pounds that I lost and (whine, whine) I feel really bad about it. Unfortunately I had to jump back into work and earn some money and I ended my hike with 2 stress fractures in my back so I felt bad for myself and didn't keep up the exercise (sorry more whining). Even a year later I still think about my hike and only wish I can do it again...maybe at 65.

Sleeveless

[irritable_badger]

My advice is to save your pennies and go back out on the (or a) trail next spring. Seeing as how you should now have all the equipment you need and you understand how unimportant your gear really, you know how to feed yourself and you know places you would like to skip or revisit you can do it again a lot cheaper. That way you don't ever have to worry about the "real world" except during winter.

[Pokey2006]

This is when I feel lucky for not having completed the whole trail...I get to go back and spend two more months hiking next summer! That way, not as much let down. Though I'm also having a hard time keeping up the exercise routine. Ugh!
Is anyone else still sore three weeks after getting off the trail??? Or is it just me?

[irritable_badger]

My feet still hurt and I'm beginning to think I'll never be able to sit cross-legged again, but other than that I'm fine.

[Pokey2006]

My feet have slowly been getting better. I still do the "hiker walk" every morning, though, and still groan whenever I have to get up and move after sitting still for more than a few minutes.
The mental/emotional stuff, I was prepared for. I was prepared for being unemployed, struggling to deal with what all this (the hike) means, where does my life go from here, etc. etc. But I was NOT prepared for how long it would take for my body to recover.
So any words of advice on that topic from those of you who have been there, done that?

[Tha Wookie]

My feet still hurt and I'm beginning to think I'll never be able to sit cross-legged again, but other than that I'm fine.

Haha I know what you mean.... I've had diffcult times after trails not being able to sit cross-legged. What it up with that?

I guess the lesson for me was -stretch out more completely on the next trail, and after. Of course I still never do enough. But seriously Chi Gong helps.

[Pokey2006]

Ya, I am so totally going to stretch out all the time on the trail from now on. I never did during my hike, and now I'm paying for it. Ouch! I'm starting to wonder if it will EVER get better!

[irritable_badger]

Chi Gong helps.

Can you give me a bit more info on what Chi Gong is? My first impression guess was slang for "alternative medications" but I'm guessing that's incorrect

[Pokey2006]

My guess is yoga will give you the same benefit?

[skeeterfeeder]

My feet have slowly been getting better. I still do the "hiker walk" every morning, though, and still groan whenever I have to get up and move after sitting still for more than a few minutes.
The mental/emotional stuff, I was prepared for. I was prepared for being unemployed, struggling to deal with what all this (the hike) means, where does my life go from here, etc. etc. But I was NOT prepared for how long it would take for my body to recover.
So any words of advice on that topic from those of you who have been there, done that?

I thought that after finishing in '05 I would never be healthy again. I was doubtful this 57 year old body woud recover, but it has. No longer do I have the stabbing pains in the souls of my feet or stand up doing the 'hiker shuffle'.
I've found that Osteo Bi-Flex with glucosamine and chondrotin are wonderful. They really work.
As far as dealing with the world again, I have no advice on that. I discovered that I have been changed and the world hasn't, therefore there is more of a disconnect than ever. That's why I am constantly coming back to Whiteblaze. At least a few people here understand.