So, Why "Hiking Forward"?

So recently I was asked why is your blog entitled "Hiking Forward"? Why not hikerjunkie or adventure dude or hiking maniac? (my apologies if any of these are your Twitter handles or actual blog title).

I have spent a few days pondering this idea and question as well as trying to organize my thoughts so that it could be understood. First, some background like most people I too have faced many changes some good and some not so good in my life. I have seen the loss of many people very close to me, namely my dad who passed five years ago unexpectedly. These moments in life remind me of the ebb and flow while hiking. 

I see life as a trail, some days its grey, dark and full of fog and others you find a pile of trail magic and a wonderfully magically mountain vista that lifts your spirits and gives you a reason to live on and take another step. Life can can be lived or you can sit and watch other people live it.

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"Get busy living, or get busy dying" Andy DuFresene - Shawshank Redemption

In life we all see adversity, tragedy, pain, love and joy. How we all deal with it is what matters. I have chosen to get busy living and not get busy dying. One of my favorite movies of all time Shawshank Redemption, reminds me that no matter how dark and horrible things can be tomorrow is another day and can it can be truly amazing. The sight of Andy smiling while working on his boat on the beach of the Pacific while his friend Red walks up the beach to greet him after his long journey... gets me every time.

Crawling up into a ball after the bad doesn't make you feel better, doesn't solve your problems, but living and living big will fill you with the medicine your body, soul and heart need. Sharing your love of something so pure and simple like being outdoors with the ones you love and the one's you haven''t met who are like-minded is an amazing thing. My father was a priest in the Armenian church, each Sunday he would get up and offer up a sermon and encourage his parish to follow a certain path and to be good to one another. I am not a priest, hardly! But I want to follow a path, and I want to encourage others to take up their own path of rock or dirt to find that inner peace, experience the external beautiful and friendly camaraderie with their fellow hiker. 

Hiking Forward is about living, not about hiking everyday, but staying on your own path of life so that you can take advantage of the days when you do get to experience the dirt, rock, water, clean air and good friends.

Keep Hiking Forward

Scott